Fluorescence response, fast dyes

Because the fluorescence intensity changes observed in response to a change in transmembrane potential are much smaller when using fast dyes in comparison to... 

The sensor for the measurement of high levels of CO2 in gas phase was developed, as well90. It was based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer between 0 long-lifetime ruthenium polypyridyl complex and the pH-active disazo dye Sudan III. The donor luminophore and the acceptor dye were both immobilized in a hydrophobic silica sol-gel/ethyl cellulose hybrid matrix. The sensor exhibited a fast and reversible response to carbon dioxide over a wide range of concentrations. 

Center for Healthcare Technologies at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, potentially capable to measure pH at or near the stroke site29. The probe is the distal end of a 125 pm fibre tapered up to a diameter of 50 pm. A fluorescent pH-indicator, seminaphthorhodamine-1-carboxylate, is embedded inside a silica sol-gel matrix which is fixed to the fibre tip. Excitation of the dye takes place at 533 nm and the emission in correspondence of the acid (580 nm) and basic (640 nm) bands are separately detected. The use of this ratiometric technique obviates worrying about source fluctuations, which have the same effects on the two detected signals. The pH sensor developed was first characterised in the laboratory, where it showed fast response time (of the order of tens of seconds) and an accuracy of 0.05 pH units, well below the limit of detection necessary for this clinical application (0.1 pH units). The pH sensor was also tested in vivo on rats, by placing the pH sensor in the brain of a Spraque-Dawley rat at a depth of approximately 5 mm30. 

First results from our fluorescence upconversion experiments are shown in Fig. 2, which displays the solvation-functions of C343 in bulk water and adsorbed on ZrC>2 nanoparticles. The response in bulk water confirms the previously reported results of bimodal dynamics [8] and a corresponding behaviour can be found for the dye bound to Z1O2, indicating that similar processes are involved. The results from biexponential fits to the solvation function S(t) of C343 in pure water and at the ZrCh-water interface are listed in Table 1. In both cases we find a fast decay time of about 100 fs and a slower decay of about 750 fs. We can see that the individual decay times stay similar and only the relative contributions change, resulting in an overall somewhat faster solvation for adsorbed dyes. 

A rather simple experimental teehnique involving measurement of the time-dependent fluorescence Stokes shift (TDFSS) after an initial exeitation has been applied to measure SD in a large number of liquids. TDFSS oceurs due to dipolar solvation of the excited probe and thus gives an estimate of the solvation timeseales. In an important paper, Jimenez et al. reported the results of SD of the exeited state of the dye coumarin 343 (C343) in liquid water [14]. Their result is shown in Figure 3.13. The initial part of the solvent response of water was found to be extremely fast (few tens of femtoseconds) and it constituted more than 60% of the total solvation energy relaxation. The subsequent relaxation was found to occur in the picosecond timescale. The decay of the solvation time correlation function, S t)y was fitted to a function of the following form... 

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