Photoinduced electron transfer from chlorin p6 to methyl viologen in aqueous micelles

We report the effect of micellar encapsulation on the photoinduced electron transfer between chlorin p6 and methyl viologen. In aqueous solutions, these molecules form contact ion pairs and the fluorescence quenching observed is mainly static in nature. The quenching efficiency increases markedly in SDS micelles and the mechanism changes partially to dynamic quenching. However, fluorescence quenching of all kinds are suppressed in CTAB and Triton X-100 micelles. This is explained in the light of dissociation of the contact ion pairs and the electrostatic attraction of MV2+ by the headgroups of the surfactants.