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Subject Chemistry

Paper No and Title 8/ Physical Spectroscopy

Module No and Title 34/ Excited states: internal and external conversion, fluorescence,
intersystem crossing, phosphorescence. Kinetics and rate
constants. Stern-Volmer equation.
Module Tag CHE_P8_M34

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Learning Outcomes
2. Introduction

3. Jablonski Diagram

4. Kinetics of Photochemistry

5. Summary

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Learning Outcomes
In this module, we shall learn about

(a) Excited states and how they are dissipated by internal and external conversion
(b) Emission of photon as fluorescence
(c) Intersystem crossing and observation of phosphorescence
(d) The various processes involved and their rate constants
(e) The quenching of fluorescence and the Stern-Volmer equation

2. Introduction
It is observed that a coloured solution continuously absorbs light to go to an excited state. If the
excited molecules were not returning to the ground state, a stage would come when the molecule
would stop absorbing radiation, as all the molecules would have gone to the excited state. The re-
emission of energy by an excited molecule is discussed in this module. The various processes are
discussed in terms of a diagram, called the Jablonski diagram.

3. Jablonski Diagram
The various processes whereby an excited state returns to the ground state are conveniently
represented in a Jablonski diagram (Fig. 1).

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 1: Jablonski diagram, showing electronic and vibrational energy levels

The ground state is labelled as S0 and succeeding states as S1, S2, …etc. The first excited singlet is
thus labelled S1 and is the most important excited state, since all other singlet states have
extremely short lifetimes and immediately drop to this state. Excitation usually takes a molecule
to a high vibrational level according to the Franck-Condon principle. In less than 10-12 s, the
molecule relaxes to the ground vibrational level of the excited singlet state. The process is called
vibrational relaxation (VR). The excited state may get deactivated by any of two processes:
internal and external conversion. These processes are radiationless and are thus represented as
wavy arrows in Figure 1. When the deactivation is by collision with another molecule, solvent
molecule or the walls of the container, it is called external conversion. In some cases, there may
be a crossing of the potential energy curve of the upper state with the ground state and the
molecule may cross over to a high vibrational level of the ground state and then come to the
ground vibrational level of the ground state by vibrational relaxation. This process is called
internal conversion.

If none of these competing radiationless processes occurs, the molecule returns to the ground
state by emitting radiation in the form of fluorescence. It is the reverse of excitation, but occurs at
longer wavelengths due to the Franck-Condon principle (Fig. 2). On excitation, the molecule is
taken to a high excited vibrational level of the excited state, governed by the Franck-Condon
principle. Vibrational relaxation brings it down to the ground vibrational state from which
fluorescence occurs. Since the energy difference is smaller for fluorescence than for excitation,
the latter occurs at longer wavelength. This is called Stokes shift.

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 2: Fluorescence

As shown in Figure 2, only the (0,0) transitions for absorption and fluorescence coincide.
Absorption shows the vibrational structure for the excited state, while in fluorescence, the
vibrational structure corresponds to the ground electronic state. There is still an approximate
mirror image relationship between the absorption and fluorescence spectra. This mirror image
relationship is observed for molecules that are rigid, such as polyaromatics like anthracene, for
which other dissipative processes, such as internal conversion, do not occur. Fluorescence
lifetimes are of the order of ~10-8 s.

Sometimes, there is a crossing of the potential energy curves of the excited singlet (S 1) and triplet
(T1) states. The latter is slightly lower in energy (Fig. 3), but the two potential energy curves may
cross. The molecule may cross over to the triplet state by a process called intersystem crossing.
Once there, it cannot easily come to the ground state singlet because this process involves change
in spin and is electric-dipole forbidden. However, it returns to the ground state by a process called
phosphorescence. Since it is forbidden, phosphorescence is slow and typical lifetimes are larger
than 10-3 s. Unlike fluorescence, it persists even after the radiation is switched off. It is enhanced
by triplet sensitizers like molecular oxygen, which transfers its triplet energy to the molecule.
Since triplet states are lower in energy than excited singlets, phosphorescence occurs at a longer
wavelength than fluorescence.

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
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Figure 3: Intersystem crossing from S1 state to T1 state

Let us now understand the kinetics of the various processes involved, since they involve varying
time scales.

4. Kinetics of Photochemistry
Photochemistry is the study of processes initiated by light. The primary step in photochemistry is
absorption of radiation (intensity = Ia) by the ground state S0. If the only process that deactivates
the excited state is fluorescence, the following two processes occur

S0  h a 
I
a
S1

I
S1 
f
S0  h f

The rate of disappearance of the excited state S1 molecules is given by

d[S1 ]
 I a  k f [S 1] (1)
dt

where kf is the fluorescence rate constant and is first order (If = kf[S1]). The lifetime of the excited
state is τ0 = 1/kf. This is also called the intrinsic or natural lifetime of the excited state.

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
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Other processes may also deactivate the excited state. These include intersystem crossing (rate
constant kISC) or internal conversion (rate constant kIC). In the presence of these competing
processes, the set of equations gets modified to

S0  h a 
a I
S1

I
S1 
f
S0  h f

S1 k
 T1  S0  h p
ISC p I

S1   S0
IC k

The steady state approximation for the excited state S1 gives

d[S1 ]
 I a  k f [S1 ]  k ISC[ S1 ]  k IC[S1 ]  0
dt (2)
 I a  (k f  k ISC  k IC )[S1 ]

Efficiencies of photochemical processes are described by quantum yields, defined as

Rate of a specified process


Rate of photonabsorption

The quantum yield for fluorescence is defined as the fraction of molecules undergoing
fluorescence and is given by

Rate of fluorescence k f [ S1 ] kf
f    (3)
Rate of all processes (k f  k ISC  k IC )[S1 ] k f  k ISC  k IC

Due to these competing processes, the observed lifetime is reduced to

1
 (4)
k f  k ISC  k IC  ...

The denominator is a sum of first-order rate constants and hence the quenching process remains
first order.

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thus, we may write equation (3) as

kf 
f   (5)
ki
i 0

Hence, since other energy wastage processes reduce the lifetime of the excited species, f < 1 and
τ < τ0. The lifetime  is related to the intrinsic or natural lifetime by  = 0f.

Besides these processes, quenching of fluorescence may also occur due to external molecules. For
example, dissolved oxygen promotes intersystem crossing and increases phosphorescence. In the
presence of a quencher, an additional second order process has to be taken into account:

k
S1  Q 
q
S0  Q

This modifies equation (3) to

k f [ S1 ] kf
f   (6)
(k f  k ISC  k IC  kq [Q])[S1 ] k f  k ISC  k IC  kq [Q]

If we designate the quantum yield in the absence of quencher as f0, we may write

 0f kf k f  k ISC  k IC  kq [Q] kq [Q]

  1
f k f  k ISC  k IC kf k f  k ISC  k IC (7)
 1  K SV [Q]

This is called the Stern-Volmer equation and KSV the Stern-Volmer constant, which is equal to
kq
k q .
k f  k ISC  k IC

If  0f /  f , the relative quantum yield, is plotted against the concentration of the quencher [Q], a
straight line is obtained with intercept equal to ‘1’ and slope equal to KSV. The relative quantum
yield can be replaced by the relative fluorescence intensity ( I 0f / I f ) , which is easily measured.
Also, since the lifetime is proportional to the quantum yield, the ratio τ0/τ may be used instead. If
, the fluorescence lifetime in the absence of quencher is known, kq can be determined from the
slope of the Stern-Volmer plot. The lifetime can be easily measured by observing the first-order
rate of decay of the excited state (Fig. 4). Since the fluorescence intensity is proportional to the
excited state concentration, a plot of ln(If) versus time gives a straight line with slope –k, where k
is the combined rate constant of all the processes and is the reciprocal of the lifetime, . Larger

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

the value of kq, more efficient is the quencher. Thus, among the
halide ions, the quenching efficiency increases as Cl- < Br- < I-.
Figure 4 shows the Stern-Volmer plot for the measured data on the quenching of fluorescence of
riboflavin (in 0.02 M acetic acid) by halide ions. For this, the value of KSV obtained is 6.3 dm3
mol-1 for quenching by chloride ions. The literature value of  is  5 ns. This gives a value of (6.3
dm3 mol-1)/(5×10-9 s) ≈ 1.3×109 dm3 mol-1 s-1 for kq.

Figure 4: Stern-Volmer plot of quenching of fluorescence of riboflavin in 0.02 M acetic acid by

halide ions

5. Summary
 Excited states lose their excess energy by various ways.
 Radiationless processes are internal and external conversion.
 If the molecule survives these processes, it may undergo fluorescence.
 If the excited state has a long lifetime, it may undergo intersystem crossing to a triplet
state.
 From here, it may undergo phosphorescence.
 All these processes are first-order processes.
 An external molecule may also quench fluorescence. Since this involves collision, it is a
second order process.
 The quenching of fluorescence is given by the Stern-Volmer equation.

CHEMISTRY PAPER No. : 8 (PHYSICAL SPECTROSCOPY)

MODULE NO. : 34 (EXCITED STATES: INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL CONVERSION, FLUORESCENCE,
INTERSYSTEM CROSSING, PHOSPHORESCENCE.
KINETICS AND RATE CONSTANTS. STERN-VOLMER
EQUATION.)