Failure of Energy Transfer between Identical Aromatic Molecules on Excitation at the Long Wave Edge of the Absorption Spectrum.

Electronic energy transfer among identical molecules has been followed by the depolarization of the fluorescence in concentrated solutions as well as in dimers, polymers, and micelle systems. In the many aromatic fluorophores examined, unlike a few nonaromatic ones, transfer is much decreased or altogether undetectable on excitation at the red edge of the absorption spectrum. The phenomenon is not due to the transfer taking place during a small fraction of the total fluorescence lifetime, nor is it explainable by a decrease in overlap of absorption and emission upon edge excitation.