Fluorescence rotational relaxation

The quantity riV/RT is equal to six times the rotational period. The rotational relaxation time, p, should he shorter than the fluorescence lifetime, t, for these equations to apply. It is possible to perform calculations for nonspherical molecules such as prolate and oblate ellipsoids of revolution, but in such cases, there are different rotational rates about the different principal axes. 

Rotational dynamics of a fluorescent dye adsorbed at the interface provides useful information concerning the rigidity of the microenvironment of liquid-liquid interfaee in terms of the interfacial viscosity. The rotational relaxation time of the rhodamine B dye was studied by time-resolved total internal reflection fluorescent anisotropy. In-plane... 

Molecular rotors are useful as reporters of their microenvironment, because their fluorescence emission allows to probe TICT formation and solvent interaction. Measurements are possible through steady-state spectroscopy and time-resolved spectroscopy. Three primary effects were identified in Sect. 2, namely, the solvent-dependent reorientation rate, the solvent-dependent quantum yield (which directly links to the reorientation rate), and the solvatochromic shift. Most commonly, molecular rotors exhibit a change in quantum yield as a consequence of nonradia-tive relaxation. Therefore, the fluorophore s quantum yield needs to be determined as accurately as possible. In steady-state spectroscopy, emission intensity can be calibrated with quantum yield standards. Alternatively, relative changes in emission intensity can be used, because the ratio of two intensities is identical to the ratio of the corresponding quantum yields if the fluid optical properties remain constant. For molecular rotors with nonradiative relaxation, the calibrated measurement of the quantum yield allows to approximately compute the rotational relaxation rate kor from the measured quantum yield [Pg.284]

A second approach with respect to anisotropic flavin (photo-)chemistry has been described by Trissl 18°) and Frehland and Trissl61). These authors anchored flavins in artificial lipid bilayers by means of C18-hydrocarbon chains at various positions of the chromophore. From fluorescence polarization analysis and model calculations they conclude, that the rotational relaxation time of the chromophore within the membrane is small compared to the fluorescence lifetime (about 2 ns74)). They further obtain the surprising result that the chromophore is localized within the water/lipid interface, with a tilt angle of about 30° (long axis of the chromophore against the normal of the membrane), irrespective of the position where the hydrocarbon chain is bound to the flavin nucleus. They estimate an upper limit of the microviscosity of the membrane of 1 Poise. 

One can employ linearly polarized light to excite selectively those fluorophores that are in a particular orientation. The difference between excitation and emitted light polarization changes whenever fluorophores rotate during the period of time between excitation and emission. The magnitude of depolarization can be measured, and one can therefore deduce the fluorophore s rotational relaxation kinetics. Extrinsic fluorescence probes are especially useful here, because the proper choice of their fluorescence lifetime will greatly improve the measurement of rotational relaxation rates. One can also determine the freedom of motion of the probe relative to the rotational diffusion properties of the macromolecule to which it is attached. When held rigidly by the macromolecule, the depolarization of a probe s fluorescence is dominated by the the motion of the macromolecule. 

The internal rotational relaxation times of 1-pyrene carboxaldehyde in sulfonate systems may offer some indication of the extent of probe binding to the inverted micelle. In the absence of any background fluorescence interference to the time-dependent anisotropy decay profile, the internal rotational relaxation time should correlate with the strength of binding with the polar material in the polar core. However, spectral interference from the aromatic moieties of sulfonates is substantial, so that the values of internal rotational relaxation time can only be used for qualitative comparison. 

We have not measured fluorescence depolarization with fluorophors and our polymers, but such measurements have been made by others, particularly with proteins and, as you indicate, it is possible to determine rotational relaxation times for the macromolecule and thus to obtain some insight into its behavior in solution. 

Fluorescence depolarisation by energy transfer (rather than rotational relaxation) between donor molecules of the same type can occur. Eisenthal [174] excited solutions of rhodamine 6G (9 mmol dm-3) in glycerol with 530 nm light from a frequency-doubled neodymium laser. The polarisation... 

Triplet—triplet energy transfer from benzophenone to phenanthrene in polymethylmethacrylate at 77 and 298 K was studied by steady-state phosphorescence depolarisation techniques [182], They were unable to see any clear evidence for the orientational dependence of the transfer probability [eqn. (92)]. This may be due to the relative magnitude of the phosphorescence lifetime of benzophenone ( 5 ms) and the much shorter rotational relaxation time of benzophenone implied by the observation by Rice and Kenney-Wallace [250] that coumarin-2 and pyrene have rotational times of < 1 ns, and rhodamine 6G of 5.7 ns in polymethyl methacrylate at room temperature. Indeed, the latter system of rhodamine 6G in polymethyl methacrylate could provide an interesting donor (to rose bengal or some such acceptor) where the rotational time is comparable with the fluorescence time and hence to the dipole—dipole energy transfer time. In this case, the definition of R0 in eqn. (77) is incorrect, since k cannot now be averaged over all orientations. 

Raman scattering depolarization of fluorescence Spin-rotation relaxation time... 

Laser-induced fluorescence is a sensitive, spatially resolved technique for the detection and measurement of a variety of flame radicals. In order to obtain accurate number densities from such measurements, the observed excited state population must be related to total species population therefore the population distribution produced by the exciting laser radiation must be accurately predicted. At high laser intensities, the fluorescence signal saturates (1, 2, 3 ) and the population distribution in molecules becomes independent of laser intensity and much less dependent on the quenching atmosphere (4). Even at saturation, however, the steady state distribution is dependent on the ratio of the electronic quenching to rotational relaxation rates (4, 5, 6, 7). When steady state is not established, the distribution is a complicated function of state-to-state transfer rates. 

The fluorescence spectrum is found to be markedly non-Boltz-mann and sharply peaked at the directly excited level throughout the laser pulse. This is due to two effects the competition between electronic quenching and rotational relaxation processes (4) and the short length of the laser pulse. Because the pulse is so short, steady state is not established throughout the upper rotational levels. The peaks of the fluorescence pulses from levels which are not directly excited by the laser lag the laser pulse peaks by one to four nanoseconds, depending on the energy gap between the given level and the directly excited level. 

Although the list of applicable species is limited, most are of extreme interest in combustion research. The fluorescence signals will be independent of gas quenching effects if the absorption resonances can be saturated. Two level models, when properly interpreted, are applicable to data reduction, but rotational relaxation/coupling effects need to be quantitatively evaluated. More fundamental research investigations are required to address these questions for this potential to be realized. 

If we allow the molecules to rotate during the lifetime of excitation r the emission axis no longer bears the fixed relation with the electric vector of the incident beam and the degree of polarization is diminished. The extent of diminution, i.e., the depolarization, is therefore determined by tJq, where q is the rotational relaxation time of the whole fluorescing molecule. The degree of polarization p compared with that for the frozen system p0 can then be represented in the form... 

In the gas phase at low pressure, vibrational and rotational relaxation are generally slow. It is now well known that a molecule in an upper vibronic state may undergo such processes as intersystem crossing, fluorescence, internal conversion, and chemical reaction before the excess vibrational energy can be removed by collisions. The different vibrational (and rotational) levels of the excited state may then have to be taken into account in the mechanism, although in detail determined by the data which are available. 

An important advantage of the depolarization technique is that it allows one to measure the molecular ordering, as well as the motional parameters. For this purpose, it is necessary to detect the time dependence of the anisotropy. In the presence of ordering constraints, the r value does not decay to zero, but to some limiting value foo r = (ro — roo)e / c - - poo. The rate of decay defines a rotational correlation time, and Poo is a direct measure of the order parameter through the following relation s = Poo/ o (29). The fluorescence depolarization method works well as long as fluorescence lifetimes, which are typically 10 s, are not too different from the rotation relaxation times to be measured. When the rotational correlation time... 

Eoor fitting to the biexponential decay function in the short delay times, the estimated uorescence decay times obtained from the measurements at the magic angle were about 10 and 220 ps. From the fitting of the polarized fluorescence in the long delay times, the rotational relaxation time was obtained to be 124 ps. Reliable value for r(0) was not obtained for this case. 

In fluid media, the analysis above is only appropriate if the average rotational relaxation time Tr is very long compared with the fluorescence decay time, Tp,... 

The plane-polarized light pulses characteristic of mode-locked lasers also provide an ideal excitation source for time-dependent fluorescence depolarization studies although conventional excitation sources can be used. If the rotational relaxation time of the excited molecule is comparable to its fluorescence decay time, then the vertical (I ) and horizontal (Ix) components of the fluorescence decay observed through suitable polarizers following excitation by polarized li t pulses, may be analysed to provide information concerning the size and motion of die molecule and Sect. 5. However, if only the true fluorescence decay characteristics are of interest it is necessary to compensate for these emission anisotropy effects Perhaps the simplest technique is to analyse only that component of fluorescence emitted at 54.7° to the direction of pdarization of the excitation source, the so-called magic-angle ... 

The changes have been used to provide information about the enviromnent of the fluorescent probe and to follow changes in conformation of the macromolecule. In other work the study of the fluorescence polarization properties of the attached probe under steady state illumination and the application of Perrin s equation enable calcu-latnn of the rotary Brownian motion of the polymer. This technique has been extended by Jablonski and Wahl to the use of time-resolved fluorescence polarization measurements to calculate rotational relaxation times of molecules These experiments are discussed fiilly in the fdlowing section of this review. 

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