Influence of deformations of a polymer matrix on the characteristics of dual fluorescence of 3-hydroxyflavone

The possibility of considerably changing the conditions for the proton transfer reaction in 3-hydroxyflavone molecules in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer matrices by stretching deformations is demonstrated. Samples of this kind are traditionally used to obtain ensembles of fluorophore molecules oriented along a chosen axis and for polarization measurements. The fluorescence spectrum of 3-hydroxyflavone in PVA has two characteristic bands in the violet and green spectral regions, which indicates excited-state proton transfer. Stretching leads to a strong reduction in the violet band, whose contribution in undeformed samples is comparable to the contribution of green fluorescence. Even twofold stretching of PVA films strongly decreases the violet band intensity, which is more pronounced in the case of sixfold stretching. In the latter case, the fluorescence spectrum behavior is very close to the pattern observed in nonpolar and aprotic solvents, in which the violet fluorescence intensity is very low. The data obtained indicate that mechanical stretching allows one to eliminate the main intermolecular factors that slow down the proton transfer between the active groups in PVA.