Intramolecular excimer formation in polymers: Pyrene Labelled Polyvinylacetate

The rate constant for intramolecular excimer formation between pyrenyl side-groups, in a polyvinylacetate chain at a mean separation of 200 bonds, has been measured as a function of molecular weight, solvent viscosity and solvent thermodynamic power. Above M = 1 × 10⁵, the rate constant is 1.4 × 10⁷ sec^?1 in low viscosity bad solvents. This value is about twenty times that for the rate constant of the analogous reaction between the two terminal groups in a chain with a mean end-to-end separation of 200 bonds. Increases of the viscosity and of the thermodynamic power of the solvent depress the rate constant, in agreement with the behaviour expected for a diffusion controlled reaction.