Study of fluorescent aggregates of polymethine dyes

Absorption, fluorescence, and fluorescence excitation spectra have been studied for a number of anionic, cationic, and cationic-anionic polymethine dyes in low-polar and nonpolar solvents, as well as in binary mixtures of solvents differing in polarity. For most of the dyes studied, fluorescent aggregates have been found to form. Their broad fluorescence bands are located in the long-wave region with respect to those of the initial dyes. The quantum yield of the aggregate fluorescence is normally higher than that of the initial dyes. Fluorescence excitation spectra of some cationic-anionic dyes in nonpolar solvents disagree with their absorption spectra because of contact and solvent-separated ion pairs simultaneously present in the solution.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 69–75, January, 1993.