Amphiphilic Copolymers Consisting of Vinylphenanthrene and Cationic Segments. Fluorescence Quenching by Amphiphilic Quenchers in Aqueous Media

Preferential excimer emission from amphiphilic alternating copolymers of 2-vinylnaphthalene and maleic acid in aqueous solution

“…Earlier work with amphiphilic polyelectrolytes has shown that the photophysical and photochemical behavior of the hydrophobic chromophores is critically dependent on the nature of the microenvironments produced by the amphiphilic polyelectrolytes to which the chromophores are covalently attached. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Studies reported so far have mostly concentrated on random copolymers of various vinyl polycyclic aromatics and electrolyte monomers with different copolymer compositions. 3,9•11-14 In some cases the chromophore loadings on the copolymers have been limited to a low level to avoid chromophore-chromophore interactions that often lead to complexity in photophysical behavior including self-quenching.11 0024-9297/87/ 2220-0807$01.50/ 0 Clusters of hydrophobic chromophores in amphiphilic polyelectrolytes have a marked tendency to associate with amphiphilic quenchers in aqueous solutions, leading to an efficient static fluorescence quenching.3,15 Electrostatic binding of ionic quenchers with a charge opposite to that of the polyelectrolyte also results in a similar phenomenon.…”