Lifetimes, phosphorescence

Owing to the longer lifetime of the triplet state it is expected that the protolytic reaction will usually reach equilibrium within the lifetime of the state. Unlike the fluorescence titration method for pAr(S1) described above, the triplet-triplet absorption technique leads directly to pA"(T ]) without the necessity for a knowledge of lifetimes. Phosphorescence titration studies, on the other hand, will involve the lifetime term log t0/To just as for fluorescence. 

Ren, X., Tyan,Y.-S., Madaras, M. et al. 2008. High-efficiency long-lifetime phosphorescent OLED devices based on electron-trapping iridium(III) complexes. SID Inti. Symp. Dig. Tech. Papers 39 864. 

Iangelaar, J., Retschnik, R.P.H., and Hoijtink, G. (1971) Studies on triplet radiative lifetimes, phosphorescence, and delayed fluorescence yields of aromatic hydrocarbons in liquid solutions. 

Typical singlet lifetimes are measured in nanoseconds while triplet lifetimes of organic molecules in rigid solutions are usually measured in milliseconds or even seconds. In liquid media where drfifiision is rapid the triplet states are usually quenched, often by tire nearly iibiqitoiis molecular oxygen. Because of that, phosphorescence is seldom observed in liquid solutions. In the spectroscopy of molecules the tenn fluorescence is now usually used to refer to emission from an excited singlet state and phosphorescence to emission from a triplet state, regardless of the actual lifetimes. 

Molecular Phosphorescence Instrumentation for molecular phosphorescence must discriminate between phosphorescence and fluorescence. Since the lifetime for fluorescence is much shorter than that for phosphorescence, discrimination is easily achieved by incorporating a delay between exciting and measuring phosphorescent emission. A typical instrumental design is shown in Figure 10.46. As shown... 

Data on duorescence, phosphorescence, excited-state lifetimes, transient absorption spectra, and dye lasers are tabulated in Ref. 16. The main nonduorescent process in cyanine dyes is the radiationless deactivation Sj — Sg. Maximum singlet-triplet interconversion ( 52 ) methanol for carbocyanines is about 3% (maxLgrp > 0.03), and the sum [Lpj + st] I than 0.10. 

The luminescence of an excited state generally decays spontaneously along one or more separate pathways light emission (fluorescence or phosphorescence) and non-radiative decay. The collective rate constant is designated k° (lifetime r°). The excited state may also react with another entity in the solution. Such a species is called a quencher, Q. Each quencher has a characteristic bimolecular rate constant kq. The scheme and rate law are... 

The use of emission (fluorescence and phosphorescence) as welt as absorption spectroscopy. From these spectra the presence of as well as the energy and lifetime of singlet and triplet excited states can often be calculated. 

Emission of light due to an allowed electronic transition between excited and ground states having the same spin multiplicity, usually singlet. Lifetimes for such transitions are typically around 10 s. Originally it was believed that the onset of fluorescence was instantaneous (within 10 to lO-" s) with the onset of radiation but the discovery of delayed fluorescence (16), which arises from thermal excitation from the lowest triplet state to the first excited singlet state and has a lifetime comparable to that for phosphorescence, makes this an invalid criterion. Specialized terms such as photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence, anodoluminescence, radioluminescence, and Xray fluorescence sometimes are used to indicate the type of exciting radiation. 

Solid-surface room-temperature phosphorescence (RTF) is a relatively new technique which has been used for organic trace analysis in several fields. However, the fundamental interactions needed for RTF are only partly understood. To clarify some of the interactions required for strong RTF, organic compounds adsorbed on several surfaces are being studied. Fluorescence quantum yield values, phosphorescence quantum yield values, and phosphorescence lifetime values were obtained for model compounds adsorbed on sodiiun acetate-sodium chloride mixtures and on a-cyclodextrin-sodium chloride mixtures. With the data obtained, the triplet formation efficiency and some of the rate constants related to the luminescence processes were calculated. This information clarified several of the interactions responsible for RTF from organic compounds adsorbed on sodium acetate-sodium chloride and a-cyclodextrin-sodium chloride mixtures. Work with silica gel chromatoplates has involved studying the effects of moisture, gases, and various solvents on the fluorescence and phosphorescence intensities. The net result of the study has been to improve the experimental conditions for enhanced sensitivity and selectivity in solid-surface luminescence analysis. 

Solid-surface fluorescence and phosphorescence quantum yield values were obtained from +23° to -180°C for the anion of p-aminobenzoic acid adsorbed on sodium acetate (11). Fhosphorescence lifetime values were also obtained for the adsorbed anion from +23° to -196°C. Table 1 gives the fluorescence and phosphorescence quantum yield values acquired. The fluorescence quantum yield values remained practically constant as a function of temperature. However, the phosphorescence quantum yield values changed substantially with temperature. The phosphorescence lifetime experiments indicated two decaying components. Each component showed a gradual increase in phosphorescence lifetime with cooler temperatures, but then the increase appeared to level off at the coldest temperatures. 

The phosphorescence lifetimes for the p-aminobenzoic acid anion adsorbed on sodium acetate as a function of temperature were evaluated in a manner similar to the one discussed by Oelkrug and coworkers (,28-30) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons adsorbed on y-alumina. In general, the solid-surface phosphorescence lifetime cutrves for the anion of p-aminobenzoic acid followed Equation 2. 

Sodium Acetate-Sodium Chloride Mixtures. Ramasamy and Hurtubise (12) obtained RTF and RTF quantum yields, triplet formation efficiency, and phosphorescence lifetime values for the anion of p-aminobenzoic acid adsorbed on sodium acetate and on several sodium acetate-sodium chloride mixtures. Rate constants were calculated for phosphorescence and for radiationless transition from the triplet state. The results showed that several factors were important for maximum RTF from the anion of p-aminobenzoic acid. One of the most important of these was how efficiently the matrix was packed with sodium acetate molecules. A similar conclusion was found for RTF however, the RTF quantum yield increased more dramatically than the RTF quantum yield. 

Burrell and Hurtubise (.32) investigated calibration curves extended well beyond the normal linear range for RTF and RTF of benzoCf)quino-line adsorbed on a silica gel chromatoplate under neutral and acidic conditions. As the benzoCf)quinoline concentration increased, the RTF curves leveled off, whereas the RTF curves passed through a maximum and then decreased. The extended calibration curves along with fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra and phosphorescence lifetimes for benzoCf)quinoline revealed differences in the RTF and RTF phenomena. For example, it was determined that RTF could arise from molecules adsorbed on the surface and in multilayers of molecules, whereas phosphorescence was only generated from molecules adsorbed on the surface of the chromatoplate and not in the multilayers. ... 

The 3.5 ms lifetime of the yellow emission of Au3(p-tolN=COEt)3-CioFg is two orders of magnitude shorter than the lifetime of the octafluoronaphthalene phosphorescence which is observed at low temperature, thus indicating a gold... 

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