Investigation of Solvent Dependence of Intermolecular Proton Transfer by Picosecond Absorption Spectroscopy

A picosecond absorption study on the intermolecular proton transfer of photoexcited 8-hydroxy-1,3,6-pyrene trisulfonate (HPTS) is presented. The time of formation of deprotonated excited HPTS was measured for various solvents. The dependence of this time of formation on the methanol fraction in watermethanol mixtures is discussed in terms of a simple cluster model. Proton transfer rates were determined in different micellar systems yielding information on the character of the micellar surrounding of the proton donator.