High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Solvatochromism is the ability of a chemical substance to change color due to a change in solvent polarity. Negative solvatochromism corresponds to hypsochromic shift (blue shift) with increasing solvent polarity and positive solvatochromism corresponds to bathochromic shift (red shift) with increasing solvent polarity. The sign of the solvatochromism depends on the difference in dipole moment between the ground and excited states of the chromophore.