Intermolecular quenching of excited singlet states by ferrocenyl derivatives: study with ketocyanine dyes

International audience; The fluorescence quenching of 1,5-bis[4-(diethylamino)phenyl]penta-1,4-dien-3-one (1), 1-[4-(diethylamino)phenyl]-5-phenylpenta-1,4-dien-3-one (2) and chalcone 3 (1-[4-(diethylamino)phenyl]but-1-en-3-one) was studied in acetonitrile using ferrocene and three commercially available derivatives, 1,1′-diacetylferrocene, acetylferrocene and 1,1′-dimethylferrocene. The spectroscopic and electrochemical characteristics of all the compounds were investigated. The feasibility of the quenching process was calculated, showing in particular that electron transfer was thermodynamically possible in every case. The steady-state fluorescence of the three organic dyes was then measured in the presence and in the absence of the ferrocenyl derivatives and the data were corrected for inner-filter effects. 1,1′-Diacetylferrocene and acetylferrocene proved to be the most efficient quenchers, and among the three dyes investigated, chalcone 3 was the most sensitive to the presence of the ferrocenyl derivatives. However, the fluorescence decay times of the ketocyanines were not affected by the presence of the ferrocene derivatives, indicating that quenching was not diffusion-controlled but rather the consequence of the formation of a ground state complex.