Abstract
The ground and excited state dipole moments of Coumarin 450 (C 450) laser dye were measured at room temperature in several solvents of varying dipole moments. The ground state dipole moment (${\mu}_g$) is estimated by using the modified Onsagar model and the excited state dipole moments (${\mu}_e$) were estimated by the method of solvatochromism as well as by utilizing the microscopic solvent polarity parameter ($E^N_T$). Further, the deviation of some of the points from the linearity of the $E^N_T$ versus Stokes shift indicates the existence of specific type of solute-solvent interaction. The excited state dipole moment of C 450 were found to be higher than those of the ground state and is interpreted in terms of the resonance structure of the molecule. A reasonable agreement has been observed between the values obtained by the method of solvatochromism and modified Onsagar model. It is observed that, corresponding to cyclohexane solution, the fluorescence maxima shift towards the red region with increasing the polarity of the solvents, hence the transition involved are of ${\pi}-{\pi}^*$ type.