Dynamic fluorescence quenching, interaction systems

In this chapter results of the picosecond laser photolysis and transient spectral studies on the photoinduced electron transfer between tryptophan or tyrosine and flavins and the relaxation of the produced ion pair state in some flavoproteins are discussed. Moreover, the dynamics of quenching of tryptophan fluorescence in proteins is discussed on the basis of the equations derived by the present authors talcing into account the internal rotation of excited tryptophan which is undergoing the charge transfer interaction with a nearby quencher or energy transfer to an acceptor in proteins. The results of such studies could also help to understand primary processes of the biological photosynthetic reactions and photoreceptors, since both the photoinduced electron transfer and energy transfer phenomena between chromophores of proteins play essential roles in these systems. 

Quenching of the fluorescence intensity by cesium ion of a fluorophore is the result of the dynamic interaction between the two molecules. Such as when oxygen is used as a quencher, two constants can be obtained, the Stem-Volmer constant Ksv and the bimolecular difflision constant kq. The value of Ksv will give an idea on the accessibility of the fluorophore to the solvent and thus to the quencher while the value of kq will give information on the dynamics of the system (Lakowicz and Weber,1973). 

The most important applications of luminescence probing in microemulsions involve the deactivation dynamics or excitation energy transfer properties of the excited states. With a brief flash of light a population of excited species is created in the sample, and the subsequent deactivation is observed over time. The decay of the excited probe, and the fluorescence spectrum, may depend on the interactions with the environment, which reveal useful information. In time-resolved luminescence quenching (TRLQ), however, it is the interaction of the probe with another added component, a quencher, that is studied. This method is dealt with here. For micellar systems, several publications have already discussed it in both experimental and theoretical detail [1-6]. 

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