Fluorophore quenching

In this case, the maximum enhancement is achieved when A,rcs is equal to the peak emission wavelength of the fluorophore. This enhancement is far more significant for fluorophores of low QE than for those of higher QE. An additional effect namely, a metal-fluorophore quenching can also occur for very small NP-fluorophore separations, typically within 5nm. This has important implications for the fabrication of an enhanced sensor chip, as will be seen in the following section. 

Experiment 1. Studies on the Accessibility of I- to a Fluorophore Quenching of Fluorescein Fluorescence with Kl... 

Several other studies (150-153) reported that metal surfaces were able to either enhance or suppress the radiative decay rates of fluorophores. Furthermore, an increase in the extent of resonance energy transfer was also observed. These effects might be due to the interactions of excited-state fluorophores with SPs, which in turn produce constructive effects on the fluorophore. The effects of metallic surfaces include fluorophore quenching at short distances ( 0-5 nm), spatial variation of the incident light field (-0-15 nm), and changes in the radiative decay rates (-0-20 nm) (64). The term of metal-enhanced fluorescence could be referred to the appplication of fluorophore and metal interactions in biomedical diagnosis (64). 

He L, Olson DP, Wu X, Karpova TS, McNally JG, Lipsky PE. A flow c)4ometric method to detect protein-protein interaction in living cells by directly visualizing donor fluorophore quenching during CFP-YFP Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). Cytometry 2003 55A 71-85. 

Nitroxides have the property of quenching fluorescence. Thus radical trapping with nitroxides containing fluorophores (e.g. 114) can be monitored by observing the appearance of fluorescence.511015 The method is highly sensitive and has been applied to quantitatively determine radical yields in PLP experiments (Section... 

In two other studies, it was observed that C60 in LB films can quench the fluorescence of pyrene [293] and of 16-(9-anthroyloxy)palmitic acid [294] by photoinduced electron transfer. In these studies, both C60 and the electron-donating fluorophore were incorporated into a tricosanoic acid LB film in different ratios. 

Fig. 3a, b. Schematic representation of (a) conventional fluorescent sensor and (b) fluorescent sensor with signal amplification. Open rhombi indicate coordination sites and black rhombi indicate metal ions. The curved arrows represent quenching processes. In the case of a den-drimer, the absorbed photon excites a single fluorophore component, which is quenched by the metal ion regardless of its position... 

Contrary to the observations with TNP-ATP, however, Mg enhanced eosin fluorescence, whereas ions decreased the fluorescence enhancement of Mg and caused a fluorescence quench in the absence of added ions [99]. The fluorescence enhancement caused by Mg was explained by an increase in the number of eosin-binding sites. Fuller [98] on the other hand, has challenged this explanation and argued that only an increase in enhancement factor (i.e., movement of the fluorophore to a more hydrophobic region of the protein) can explain the Mg -induced fluorescence increase. 

Exciplexes are complexes of the excited fluorophore molecule (which can be electron donor or acceptor) with the solvent molecule. Like many bimolecular processes, the formation of excimers and exciplexes are diffusion controlled processes. The fluorescence of these complexes is detected at relatively high concentrations of excited species, so a sufficient number of contacts should occur during the excited state lifetime and, hence, the characteristics of the dual emission depend strongly on the temperature and viscosity of solvents. A well-known example of exciplex is an excited state complex of anthracene and /V,/V-diethylaniline resulting from the transfer of an electron from an amine molecule to an excited anthracene. Molecules of anthracene in toluene fluoresce at 400 nm with contour having vibronic structure. An addition to the same solution of diethylaniline reveals quenching of anthracene accompanied by appearance of a broad, structureless fluorescence band of the exciplex near 500 nm (Fig. 2 )... 

Energy transfer, as described by Forster [78], requires a long range dipole-dipole interaction between the donor and the acceptor fluorophore. This energy transfer is possible at distances between 2 and 10 nm. Contrary to what happens in collisional quenching, there is no need for physical contact between the two molecules. 

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