ENERGY TRANSFER FROM MICELLAR SODIUM PHENYLUNDECANOATE TO SOLUBILIZED NAPHTHALENE

Abstract— Excitation energy transfer from the phenyl groups of surface active phenylundecanoate ions to naphthalene molecules has been studied under conditions such that the naphthalene molecules have been solubilized by micelles of phenylundecanoate. From measurements of the naphthalene fluorescence intensity in solutions of varying surfactant concentration the critical micelle concentration has been determined as 0·0091 M. The product of the micellar aggregation number and the efficiency of energy transfer has been obtained as 75 from measurements of both the sensitized naphthalene fluorescence and the quenching of the phenylgroup fluorescence. In the evaluation of the experimental data it has been assumed that the partition of naphthalene between the micelles and the aqueous phase may be treated as a distribution equilibrium, and that the solubilized naphthalene molecules are partitioned among the micelles according to a Poisson distribution. With this model, the naphthalene fluorescence intensities may be accounted for over the whole range of surfactant concentrations.
At high naphthalene concentrations, emission from naphthalene excimers has been observed. The possibility of self-quenching via excimer formation is considered.
The experimental results point to a quantum efficiency near unity for the transfer of excitation energy from the phenyl groups of the surfactant ions that form a micelle to a single solubilized naphthalene molecule. The high efficiency suggests that the naphthalene molecule and the phenyl groups are present inside the micelles.