Interaction of acriflavine with pyrimidines: A spectroscopic approach

•Acriflavine forms ground state complex with uracils.•Lifetime measurements support the static quenching mechanism.•Binding constant and number of binding sites were calculated.•Rehm–Weller equation confirms the electron transfer process.•Thermodynamic parameters were obtained.

The interaction of acriflavine with uracils was investigated by using spectroscopic tools viz., UV–Vis absorption, steady state and time resolved fluorescence measurements. The spectroscopic data were analyzed using Stern–Volmer equation to determine the quenching process. The bimolecular quenching rate constant (kq), binding constant (K) and number of binding sites (n) were calculated at different temperature from the relevant fluorescence data. The experimental results obtained from life-time measurement indicate that the quenching mechanism was static via the formation of ground state complex. The free energy change (ΔGet) for electron transfer process was calculated by Rehm–Weller equation. The existence of binding forces and the interactions of acriflavine with uracils were examined.

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