Fluorescence enhancement effect in pyrene and perylene doped nanoporous polystyrene films: Mechanistic and morphology

Abstract

AbstractLuminescent porous polystyrene (PS) films containing pyrene and various amounts of perylene were prepared in humid atmosphere by solution casting technique for use as a plastic scintillator. The fluorescence spectra of doped PS films monitored at pyrene excitation show quenching of monomer fluorescence of pyrene with simultaneous sensitization of perylene monomer fluorescence appearing towards red. The observed enhancement in fluorescence of perylene was explained by considering excitation energy transfer (EET) from pyrene to perylene molecules accommodated in the pores generated during film formation. The fluorescence quenching data do not fit into the Stern–Volmer relation, but the sensitized fluorescence is fitted by an exponential growth equation, y = 201 860 433.29 ex/0.64366 + 0.49262, with correlation coefficient R2 = 0.997. The results on absorption and excitation spectroscopy indicated that the pyrene and perylene filled in pores of the PS films exist as isolated molecules. The porosity of the films was examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showing randomly oriented holes, and their mean size and size distribution were found to be depending upon the dopant concentration.Pyrene and perylene doped porous PS films prepared by solution casting method in humid atmosphere showed highly intense blue perylene fluorescence by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) at pyrene excitation. The SEM and AFM images revealed that nanosized pores are perylene concentration dependent, both pyrene and perylene held in the cavity of the pores in close proximal distance less than 10 nm is required to cause efficient energy transfer between them.