Comparison between Intra- and Intermolecular Photoinduced Electron Transfer Reactions of Micelle-Solubilized Substances

Abstract The rate constants of intramolecular photoinduced electron-transfer reactions of a linked pyrene–viologen molecule A and a linked pyrene–ferrocene molecule B solubilized in micellar solutions of a hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride were determined to be 9×108 and 4×108 s−1 respectively, from the stationary fluorescence intensity. However, the observed fluorescence decay curve of A suggests that a large fraction of the molecules have conformations for which the distances between two functional moieties are sufficiently small to permit direct electron transfer. The quasi-first-order rate constants of the intermolecular photoinduced electron-transfer reactions between 1-hexylpyrene (HPy) and dodecylviologen (DDV), and between HPy and butylferrocene (BFc) solubilized in a micellar solution, were also determined to be 9×106 and 2×107 s−1 respectively, from the fluorescence decay curves. It is shown that the rate constants of the intermolecular photoinduced electron-transfer reaction in micelles are determined by the diffusion of the reactants in a micelle. On the other hand, it is suggested that the rate constants of the intramolecular electron-transfer reactions are determined by the molecular conformations of the linked compounds in micelles.