Spectroscopic study of benzanthrone 3-N-derivatives as new hydrophobic fluorescent probes for biomolecules.

We report the results on the spectroscopic properties of a new fluorescent lipophilic probes. Basic photophysical characteristics of the novel benzanthrone 3-amino-derivatives such as the absorption and fluorescence maxima, extinction coefficient, Stokes shift, fluorescence intensity were measured in benzene, chloroform and ethanol solutions. Novel benzanthrone 3-N-derivatives show bright fluorescence and are quite sensitive to the surrounding environment. The behaviour of the investigated benzanthrone derivatives was dependent on the polarity of the medium showing strong fluorescent solvatochromism arising from the donor-acceptor nature of the benzanthrone carbonyl group and electron-rich substituted amino group.