Photophysical study of a charge transfer oxazole dye in micelles: Role of surfactant headgroups

Photophysics of 5-(4′′-dimethylaminophenyl)-2-(4′-sulfophenyl)oxazole, sodium salt (DMO) which undergoes intramolecular charge transfer in the excited state was studied in micelles. In the cationic and the nonionic micelles, significantly higher fluorescence quantum yield is observed in comparison to the anionic micelles, due to much lower accessibility of DMO to the water molecules in the former micelles than the latter. Time-resolved fluorescence decays were characterized by a fast (τ1) and a slow (τ2) component of decay in all the micelles. The fast decay component (τ1) increases significantly in going from the anionic micelles to the cationic micelles, because of the poorly hydrated headgroup region of the latter micelles compared to the former. Furthermore, much higher value of the slow component of decay (τ2) is observed for the cationic and the neutral micelles than the anionic micelles. This is attributed to the increased penetration of water molecules into the micellar core of the anionic micelles compared to the cationic and the neutral micelles.