A slowing down of proton motion from HPTS to water adsorbed on the MCM-41 surface

We report on the steady-state and femtosecond–nanosecond (fs–ns) behaviour of 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (pyranine, HPTS) and its interaction with mesoporous silica based materials (MCM-41) in both solid-state and dichloromethane (DCM) suspensions in the absence and presence of water. In the absence of water, HPTS forms aggregates which are characterized by a broad emission spectrum and multiexponential behavior (τsolid-state/DCM = 120 ps, 600 ps, 2.2 ns). Upon interaction with MCM41, the aggregate population is found to be lower, leading to the formation of adsorbed monomers. In the presence of water (1%), HPTS with and without MCM41 materials in DCM suspensions undergoes an excited-state intermolecular proton-transfer (ESPT) reaction in the protonated form (ROH*) producing a deprotonated species (RO−*). The long-time emission decays of the ROH* in different systems in the presence of water are multiexponential, and are analysed using the diffusion-assisted geminate recombination model. The obtained proton-transfer and recombination rate constants for HPTS and HPTS/MCM41 complexes in DCM suspensions in the presence of water are kPT = 13 ns−1, krec = 7.5 Å ns−1, and kPT = 5.4 ns−1, krec = 2.2 Å ns−1, respectively, The slowing down of both processes in the latter case is explained in terms of specific interactions of the dye and of the water molecules with the silica surface. The ultrafast dynamics (fs-regime) of the HPTS/MCM41 complexes in DCM suspensions, without and with water, shows two components which are assigned to intramolecular vibrational-energy relaxation (IVR) (∼120 fs vs. ∼0.8 ps), and vibrational relaxation/cooling (VC), and charge transfer (CT) processes (∼2 ps without water and ∼5 ps with water) of the adsorbed ROH*. Our results provide new knowledge on the interactions and the proton-transfer reaction dynamics of HPTS adsorbed on mesoporous materials.