Energy transfer in dye molecule-containing zeolite monolayers

Abstract

The inter- and intra-molecule energy transfers in dye molecules in zeolite crystals were studied using polarized photoluminescence spectroscopy. We used nanoporous zeolite-L crystal and two kinds of dye molecules, pyronine B (PyB+) and pyronine Y (PyY+), as the host and guest materials, respectively. To quantitatively monitor the arrangement of PyB+ and PyY+ molecules inserted into the channels of zeolite-L, the polarized fluorescence microscopy of dye-containing zeolite-L were investigated. From the polarized fluorescence microscopy images, it is clear that the incorporated PyB+ molecules forced to be lined up along the channel direction of zeolite-L crystal and that the various arrangements of PyY+ molecules were located mostly in the both ends of zeolite-L crystal. Here, we report that the vertically aligned zeolite monolayer can be applied as novel supramolecularly organized systems to study energy transfer dynamics between the internal and external fluorophores, and to develop zeolite-based advanced materials. Based on the polarized fluorescence spectroscopy and the angle-dependent intensity change depending on dye molecules, we discussed the dominant energy transfers between internally incorporated molecules and externally absorbed molecules in dye-containing zeolite-L monolayer.