New insights into quantifying the solvatochromism of BODIPY based fluorescent probes

A simple semiempiric phenomenological approach is developed for quantifying the solvent effect on the absorption and emission properties of BODIPYs. It is based on a new rule describing the linear relationship between the difference (Stokes shift) and the sum (double Gibbs free energy of electron transfer) for absorption and emission wavenumbers derived from a combination of solvent functions of Liptay theory. This rule is correspondent to changes of dipole moments in the ground and excited states. High reliability and advantages of the developed approach in comparison with traditional methods of the analysis of the solvatochromism based on Dimroth-Reichard and Lippert-Mataga solvent scales are illustrated for selected BODIPYs exhibiting positive, negative, and near-zero solvatochromism.