Spectrofluorimetric study of 1-naphthoic acid in micellar surfactant solution

This study focuses on the spectrofluorimetric behaviour of a pharmaceutically and analytically important molecule 1-naphthoic acid in the presence of various surfactant solutions. Micellar solubilization is a powerful alternative for dissolving hydrophobic compounds in aqueous environment. Fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy are the two techniques used to monitor the micellar solubilization studies of 1-naphthoic acid. The influence of surfactant, concentration and working experimental conditions on the fluorescence spectra of 1-naphthoic acid is thoroughly evaluated and discussed. The increase in fluorescence intensity in micellar media can be attributed to the increase in quantum efficiency suggests that the suspended hydrophobic 1-naphthoic acid molecules have been solubilized. The solubilizing action has been supplemented and confirmed by few theoretically calculated spectral parameters like, empirical fluorescence coefficient (kf), quantum yield (φf), molar extinction coefficient (Ε) and Stokes' shift values.