| Abstract: | Features of the photophysical and photochemical characteristics of polymethine dyes that determine their use as light-sensitive materials (luminescent light concentrators, fluorescent probes and markers for the intercalation of DNA, laser media, polymerization photoinitiators, electroluminescent media) are analyzed. The main paths of the degradation of the electronic excitation energy (photoisomerization, intercombination and internal conversion, electron phototransfer in ion pairs, interaction of chromophores, like and mixed association) are discussed. The relation between these factors and the structure of the dyes and the nature of the medium is examined. Special attention is paid to methods of creating and optimizing colored light-sensitive polymeric materials. Institute of Organic Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 5 Murmanskaya ul., Kiev 253094. Translated from Teoreticheskaya i éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 214–232, July–August, 1998. |
