UV–vis photodegradation of dyes in the presence of colloidal Q-CdS

The interaction of the dyes Safranin-O (SO) and Orange II (OII) with aqueous colloidal Q-CdS clusters, which emit single fluorescence bands with maximum wavelengths at 481 nm (excitonic band) or 559 nm (trapped band), has been studied. This was carried out by monitoring both the photodegradation of the dye in the presence of the clusters and the quenching of the clusters fluorescence by the dyes. The photolysis experiments were carried out by excitation either at 520 nm (the wavelength at which the dyes, but not the clusters absorb light) or at 350 nm (the wavelength at which the clusters strongly absorb light, and the dyes have absorbance minima). At 520 nm, photodegradation of SO could be observed, which follows a first-order kinetics (for trapped-band clusters) and a second-order kinetics (for excitonic-band clusters). For the excitation wavelength of 350 nm, photodegradation of either of the dyes could not be observed. The Stern–Volmer plots for the quenching of the excitonic band-clusters fluorescence by SO show an upward curvature, pointing to the occurrence of more than one species acting as the fluorescence quencher, whereas the Stern–Volmer plots for the quenching of the trapped band-clusters fluorescence by SO are linear, indicating that only one species acts as a fluorescence quencher. Lambert–Beer type plots (absorbance vs. concentration) are linear for SO in water and in trapped band-clusters solutions, but a similar study of SO in excitonic band-clusters solution show the occurrence of a new band, which can be assigned to a ground-state dimer of the dye. The latter can be used to explain both the upward curvature of the Stern–Volmer plots and the second-order kinetics observed for SO photodegradation in the SO-excitonic band-clusters system. The Stern–Volmer plots for the quenching of both fluorescence bands by OII are linear.