Time-resolved fluorescence in micellar systems: A critical application to the partitioning of naphthalene in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate

Static and dynamic aspects of the partitioning of naphthalene into the hydrocarbon phase in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles have been critically examined by nanosecond time-resolved pulse fluorometry. It is shown that, in such a system, a properly detailed analysis of the excited-state decay behavior as a function of progressive partitioning of the solute into increasing concentrations of micelles is capable of revealing and directly quantitating the underlying kinetics of the reversible transfer of naphthalene in its excited state between aqueous and micellar phases. The time-resolved data indicate that, in the aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate system, the partition coefficient for excited-state naphthalene can differ only marginally from that for the ground state. From the estimate obtained for the rate coefficient for entry of excited-state naphthalene into micelles, it would appear that any barrier to the crossing of excited naphthalene into the micelle, given that a collision has taken place, is likely to be rather small. The contrasting time-resolved behavior of a system in which the basis lifetime of the fluorescence probe in the micellar environment is shorter than that in the bulk environment rather than longer, as in the case examined experimentally, is also modeled. The effects of quenching of the fluorescence at the interface between the micellar and aqueous phases are also examined and discussed in the context of the aqueous cetyltrimethylammonium bromide system.