Photochemical study of Eosin-Y with PAMAM dendrimers in aqueous solution

A steady-state and time-resolved study of the xanthene dye Eosin-Y (Eos) in the presence of amino-terminated polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers in alkaline aqueous solution is presented. Stationary photolysis experiments in deaerated and air equilibrated solutions were carried out. The absorption spectra of the photolyzed solutions in the absence of oxygen showed the formation of several intermediate species. With the aid of laser flash photolysis technique (LFP) those transients could be ascribed to semireduced and partially debrominated species of Eos. The triplet quenching rate-constant (3kq) and radical quantum yields (ΦR) were determined by LFP. In the presence of PAMAM, the triplet lifetime of Eos is greatly decreased and the data fitted to a Stern-Volmer treatment. These experiments indicated that the electron transfer from dendrimers to Eos is a highly favored process. Based on the results found in this work, we concluded that Eos/PAMAM couple might act as a promising photoinitiator of vinyl polymerization with low ecological impact.