Fluorescence characteristics of isolated dye molecules within silicalite-1 channels

Fluorescence characteristics of hemicyanine dye molecules isolated from neighboring molecules and strongly restricted inside nanosized pores of zeolite (silicalite-1) crystal were investigated. For samples in which the molecules were sufficiently far away from the others, the fluorescence decay lifetime of the molecules was about 2.2 ns. As the intermolecular distance was reduced, the steady-state fluorescence peak shifted toward the longer wavelength and the fluorescence efficiency decreased markedly. The fluorescence decay lifetime also decreased to 0.8 ns for a sample with the smallest intermolecular distance of 2.1 nm. These results were explained in terms of a dipole-dipole interaction between pairs of dye molecules. From the relation between the intermolecular distances and the fluorescence decay lifetimes of the molecules, the radius of energy transfer of hemicyanine donor-acceptor pair in zeolite matrix was determined to be 2.2 nm, in fair agreement with the calculated Förster radius between dye molecules of the same species.