Molecule matters

4-(N,N-dimethylamino)benzonitrile, popularly known as DMABN, has received tremendous attention for nearly five decades. In this article, we outline some of the features of the molecule that have made it such an interesting system to study, such as fluorescence emission in two wavelengths. The article also highlights how limited our understanding of the excited state structure of a small molecule like DMABN is, despite the availability of various resources to investigate it. Anunay Samanta is a professor of chemistry at the University of Hyderabad. Mainly he is interested in photophysics and time-resolved spectroscopy. Design of fluorosensors and study of photophysical response of molecular systems in ionic liquids are two of his current research topics of interest.