Fluorescence quenching of dyes covalently attached to single-walled carbon nanotubes

The development of chromophore-carbon nanotube hybrids requires efficient and accurate methods to investigate their photophysical properties. Using the ability of the fluorescence labeling of surface species (FLOSS) technique to determine the density of covalently attached dyes to the surface of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), the luminescence of dye-SWCNT hybrids was quantitatively studied with two chromophores: dansyl hydrazine (DH) and panacyl bromide (PB). The fluorescence intensity of PB-SWCNT hybrids was reduced by 20-80% compared to that of free PB. A strong positive correlation between the degree of quenching and the residual metal impurity content in the SWCNT sample suggests that quenching of fluorescence of PB in PB-SWCNTs may be caused by the metal impurities and not by SWCNTs. On the contrary, the intensity of fluorescence of DH-SWCNT hybrids was reduced by almost 2 orders of magnitude compared to free DH, independent of the residual metal content in the SWCNT sample, suggesting that quenching of fluorescence in DH-SWCNT hybrids might occur via charge transfer from DH chromophores to SWCNTs, and revealing the potential of DH-SWCNT hybrids for solar light harvesting applications.