Calorimetric, photometric and lifetime determinations of fluorescence yields of fluorescein dyes

Abstract— The fluorescence yields and lifetimes of fluorescein and nine brominated derivatives in basic ethanol are reported. Calorimetric. photometric, and lifetime methods are used independently to measure the yields. A new and simple calorimetric method is presented for this purpose, and the accuracy of the techniques is assessed. There is good agreement between the calorimetric and photometric results. The importance of parameters such as purity, pH, and fluoresence reabsorption is illustrated. The theoretical determination of the natural radiative lifetime from the absorption spectrum is shown to have inherent ambiguities, so that only calorimetric methods provide a reliable, independent check for photometric yield measurements.