Intermicellar Mobility of Probe and Quencher in Reverse Micelles Studied by Fluorescence Quenching

Fusion-Fission Transport of Probes and Quenchers in Microdomains of an Amphiphilic Ionene Polyelectrolyte†

In aqueous solution, amphiphilic ionenes such as the [3,22]-ionene spontaneously adopt globular conformations and form microdomains that are highly micelle-like, i.e. are capable of solubilizing organic molecules, binding and exchanging counterions and accelerating or inhibiting the rates of bimolecular reactions. Time-resolved fluorescence decay of pyrene and pyrene derivatives solubilized in these microdomains at concentrations where excimer formation occurs show that even water-insoluble probes can migrate between the hydrophobic microdomains formed in aqueous solution by a [3,22]-ionene chloride (with the N-terminal groups quaternized with benzyl chloride). Time-resolved studies of the quenching of pyrene fluorescence by alkylpyridine derivatives revealed similar behavior. The observed quenching behavior requires that the migration be between microdomains on the same ionene chain or same group of associated ionene chains and is consistent with migration dominated by fusion/fission transport of the probe and quencher.

Identifiability of Models for Fluorescence Quenching in Aqueous Micellar Systems

The first deterministic identifiability analysis is presented for four commonly used kinetic models of fluorescence quenching of an excited probe in aqueous micelles: A) model with immobile quenchers, B) model with mobile quenchers, C) an extension of model B in which exchange of quenchers both via the aqueous phase and during micelle collisions is taken into account, and D) model with probe migration. It is shown that these specific models for fluorescence decay of an excited probe solubilized in a micelle and quenched by molecules or ions that are Poisson-distributed over the micelles, resulting in the generalized four-parameter equation f(t)=A(1) exp{-A(2)t-A(3)[1-A(4)t]}, are uniquely identifiable in terms of four descriptive A parameters. Moreover, each model also can be uniquely identified in terms of the underlying rate constants and micellar concentration or mean micellar aggregation number. This means that these parameters can be extracted in a unique way from time-resolved fluorescence quenching experiments on a probe in micelles. For each model the recommended analysis approach is given.