FLUORESCENCE QUENCHING IN CLUSTERS OF REVERSE MICELLES

Fluorescence quenching in clusters of reverse micelles is analyzed on the basis of a model which takes into account the statistical aspects of the interdroplet migration of the excited probe, and the quencher distribution among micelle confinements. The probe's migration frequency between neighboring micelles is assumed to be linearly proportional to the number of micelles in direct contact. The fluorescence decay function is expressed in terms of the joint probability distribution of quencher occupancy and local micelle connectivity. In the particular case where the joint probability distribution is a product of independent Poisson distributions, the zeroth-order approximation of the decay function is reduced to the expression employed by Johannsson, Almgren and Alsins in their luminescence quenching study of clusters of reverse micelles.