Solvation Dynamics of Coumarin 480 in Vesicles

Abstract

Solvation dynamics of Coumarin 480 (C-480) in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles in water is studied using picosecond time-resolved Stokes shift. In sonicated unilamellar DMPC vesicles C-480 exhibits wavelength dependent fluorescence decays. At short wavelengths a fast decay is observed while at the long wavelengths a growth in the nanosecond time scale precedes the decay. The solvation dynamics of C-480 in DMPC vesicles is found to be bimodal with two components of 0.6 and 11 ns, which is similar to the solvation dynamics of C-480 in the large water pools of AOT/n-heptane/water (AOT = aerosol OT) microemulsions.