Abstract
Metal-enhanced fluorescence of carotenoids, all-trans-β-carotene and 8′-apo-β-carotene-8′-al dispersed in thin layers of polystyrene and polyethylene glycol were investigated by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The weak emission signals of carotenoids in polymer films were increased by 4–40 times in the presence of a silver island film and the emission lifetimes of both carotenoids were measured as significantly shortened. The energy transfer from the intermediate states of carotenoids to the silver islands and the subsequent surface plasmon coupled emission were proposed for the mechanisms of metal-enhanced fluorescence. The fluorescence enhancements of carotenoids in the polymer films were also investigated statistically over a wide area of the silver island films.
Highlights
Carotenoids are accessory pigments in natural photosynthetic systems in plants and photosynthetic bacteria
The S1 lifetimes of both carotenoids were known as 10–25 ps, which is strongly dependent on the energy level of the S1 state and called the energy gap law[28]
We reported Metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) of the laser dyes 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl) -4H-pyran (DCM) and Rhodamine 6 G dispersed in thin polymer films in the presence of the silver island film (SIF)[47]
Summary
Carotenoids are accessory pigments in natural photosynthetic systems in plants and photosynthetic bacteria. The similar emission spectra of carotenal in both polymer matrices are understood as the appearance of the SPCE with the introduction of SIF, where the emission intensities of carotenal in the PS and PEG film were increased by 4.0 and 9.8 times, respectively.
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