Quantum yield experimental

When an excess amount of luciferin was preincubated with H2O2 before the addition of luciferase, the quantum yields of luciferase and the luciferin-H202 adduct were found to be 0.63 and 0.03, respectively (Rudie et al., 1981). The aldehyde group of luciferin is probably converted into the corresponding acid in the luminescence reaction, although it has not been experimentally confirmed. 

The experimental results on poly(methacrylic acid) containing a small mole fraction of either 3-vinylperylene (PMAvPER, (30)) or lV-[12-(4-aminonaphthali-mide)]-2-methylacrylamide (PMAANI, (31)) show charge separation which is efficient for PMAvPER but not much for PMAANI. The quantum yields of charge separation for various chromophores covalently bound to PMA at pH 2.8 are summarized in Table 7. 

Product quantum yields are much easier to measure. The number of quanta absorbed can be determined by an instrument called an actinometer, which is actually a standard photochemical system whose quantum yield is known. An example of the information that can be learned from quantum yields is the following. If the quantum yield of a product is finite and invariant with changes in experimental conditions, it is likely that the product is formed in a primary rate-determining process. Another example In some reactions, the product quantum yields are found to be well over 1 (perhaps as high as 1000). Such a finding indicates a chain reaction (see p. 895 for a discussion of chain reactions). 

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. 

The validity of the above conclusions rests on the reliability of theoretical predictions on excited state barriers as low as 1-2 kcal mol . Of course, this required as accurate an experimental check as possible with reference to both the solvent viscosity effects, completely disregarded by theory, and the dielectric solvent effects. As for the photoisomerization dynamics, the needed information was derived from measurements of fluorescence lifetimes (x) and quantum yields (dielectric constant, where extensive formation of ion pairs may occur [60], the observed photophysical properties are confidently referable to the unperturbed BMPC cation. Figure 6 shows the temperature dependence of the... 

In order to go further into the experimental check we constructed Arrhenius plots of the fluorescence quantum yield of BMPC in a few solvents (methanol, ethanol, propanol, hexanol and methylene chloride), all of which showed good linearity. The activation energies and A/kp ratios, calculated from the slopes and intercepts of those plots, are collected in Table 1. The smooth increase of both parameters in the alcohol series is mainly associated with the increase of solvent viscosity. On the other hand, decrease of the solvent dielectric constant from 32.7 (methanol) to 8.9 (dichloromethane) causes a small but significant increase of the activation energy also, this increase is probably somewhat compensated by the decrease of the viscous-flow... 

The overall OD vibrational distribution from the HOD photodissociation resembles that from the D2O photodissociation. Similarly, the OH vibrational distribution from the HOD photodissociation is similar to that from the H2O photodissociation. There are, however, notable differences for the OD products from HOD and D2O, similarly for the OH products from HOD and H2O. It is also clear that rotational temperatures are all quite cold for all OH (OD) products. From the above experimental results, the branching ratio of the H and D product channels from the HOD photodissociation can be estimated, since the mixed sample of H2O and D2O with 1 1 ratio can quickly reach equilibrium with the exact ratios of H2O, HOD and D2O known to be 1 2 1. Because the absorption spectrum of H2O at 157nm is a broadband transition, we can reasonably assume that the absorption cross-sections are the same for the three water isotopomer molecules. It is also quite obvious that the quantum yield of these molecules at 157 nm excitation should be unity since the A1B surface is purely repulsive and is not coupled to any other electronic surfaces. From the above measurement of the H-atom products from the mixed sample, the ratio of the H-atom products from HOD and H2O is determined to be 1.27. If we assume the quantum yield for H2O at 157 is unity, the quantum yield for the H production should be 0.64 (i.e. 1.27 divided by 2) since the HOD concentration is twice that of H2O in the mixed sample. Similarly, from the above measurement of the D-atom product from the mixed sample, we can actually determine the ratio of the D-atom products from HOD and D2O to be 0.52. Using the same assumption that the quantum yield of the D2O photodissociation at 157 nm is unity, the quantum yield of the D-atom production from the HOD photodissociation at 157 nm is determined to be 0.26. Therefore the total quantum yield for the H and D products from HOD is 0.64 + 0.26 = 0.90. This is a little bit smaller ( 10%) than 1 since the total quantum yield of the H and D productions from the HOD photodissociation should be unity because no other dissociation channel is present for the HOD photodissociation other than the H and D atom elimination processes. There are a couple of sources of error, however, in this estimation (a) the assumption that the absorption cross-sections of all three water isotopomers at 157 nm are exactly the same, and (b) the accuracy of the volume mixture in the... 

There are two general types of experimental setup commonly used for the determination of photochemical quantum yields. The more elaborate of the two is the optical bench. A diagram of an optical bench with a good geometry is shown in Figure 2.21. 

The rate constant for the singlet di-7r-methane photorearrangement can be determined from the quantum yield for the reaction and the experimentally measured singlet lifetime ... 

We have now seen how fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes are experimentally determined, along with some of the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used. For anthracene these constants have been determined to be... 

One of the most popular applications of molecular rotors is the quantitative determination of solvent viscosity (for some examples, see references [18, 23-27] and Sect. 5). Viscosity refers to a bulk property, but molecular rotors change their behavior under the influence of the solvent on the molecular scale. Most commonly, the diffusivity of a fluorophore is related to bulk viscosity through the Debye-Stokes-Einstein relationship where the diffusion constant D is inversely proportional to bulk viscosity rj. Established techniques such as fluorescent recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and fluorescence anisotropy build on the diffusivity of a fluorophore. However, the relationship between diffusivity on a molecular scale and bulk viscosity is always an approximation, because it does not consider molecular-scale effects such as size differences between fluorophore and solvent, electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bond formation, or a possible anisotropy of the environment. Nonetheless, approaches exist to resolve this conflict between bulk viscosity and apparent microviscosity at the molecular scale. Forster and Hoffmann examined some triphenylamine dyes with TICT characteristics. These dyes are characterized by radiationless relaxation from the TICT state. Forster and Hoffmann found a power-law relationship between quantum yield and solvent viscosity both analytically and experimentally [28]. For a quantitative derivation of the power-law relationship, Forster and Hoffmann define the solvent s microfriction k by applying the Debye-Stokes-Einstein diffusion model (2)... 

The quantum yield (Q) represents the ratio between the number of photons absorbed and photons emitted as fluorescence. It is a measure of brightness of the fluorophore and represents the efficiency of the emission process. The determination of absolute quantum yield for a fluorophore is experimentally difficult. Therefore, usually relative quantum yield values are determined. To measure the relative quantum yield of a fluorophore, the sample is compared to a standard fluorophore with an established quantum yield that does not show variations in the excitation wavelength [5, 6]. 

Although the most numerous investigations of dissociative electron transfer have concerned thermal reactions, photoinduced dissociative electron transfer has also attracted a great deal of recent theoretical and experimental attention. As discussed in Section 6, one of the key questions in the field is whether photoinduced dissociative electron transfers are necessarily endowed with a unity quantum yield as one would predict on purely intuitive grounds. Quantum yield expressions for the concerted and stepwise cases are established and experimental examples are discussed. 

Finally, in many of the perturbation calculations of the effect of substituents and other structural changes, an important tacit assumption is made and it is far from obvious that it is always fulfilled. As already discussed, the physical argument on which the calculation is based is that the value of the initial slope, or the height of a small barrier along the way, determine the rate at which the photochemical reaction occurs. However, the experimental value with which comparison is made usually is not the reaction rate but the quantum yield, which of course also depends on rates of other competing processes and these may be affected by substitution as well. For instance, the rate at which fluorescence occurs is related to the absorption intensity of the first transition, the rate of intersystem crossing may be affected by introduction of heavy atoms... 

Unfortunately, determination of rates of photochemical reactions is often very laborious and besides, for many practical purposes, quantum yields are of great interest. The best that can be done at present probably is to be aware of the existence of the various pitfalls, to exclude as many of them as possible on the basis of available experimental evidence, and to try a correlation with quantum yields anyway. 

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