Interaction between triethanolamine and singlet or triplet excited state of xanthene dyes in aqueous solution

Triethanolamine (TEOA) has been often used as a hole-scavenger in dye-sensitized semiconductor photocatalytic systems. However, the femtosecond time-resolved kinetics of the interaction between a sensitized dye and TEOA has not been reported in literatures. Herein, we selected four commonly used xanthene dyes, such as fluorescein, dibromofluorescein, eosin Y, and erythrosine B, and studied their ultrafast fluorescence quenching dynamics in the presence of TEOA in aqueous solution, respectively, by using both femtosecond transient absorption and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. We obtained the electron transfer rate from TEOA to each photoexcited xanthene dye in 2.0 M TEOA solution. We also obtained the intersystem crossing rate of each xanthene dye in aqueous solution with fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime measurements. Finally we found that TEOA mainly interacts with the singlet excited-state of fluorescein, dibromofluorescein, and eosin Y, and that TEOA can interact with both the singlet and triplet excited-states of erythrosine B in high concentration of TEOA aqueous solution.