title: Spectral properties of fluorescein molecules in water with the addition of a colloidal suspension of silver.
abstract: The absorption, fluorescence excitation, and fluorescence emission spectra of water solutions of fluorescein dye with the addition of various amounts of a colloidal silver suspension have been measured in order to check if in such systems it is possible to distinguish the change in photonic mode density due to the metal presence from the other effects such as the influences of the microemulsion system on the spectral properties of the dye. It has been found that the presence of the silver colloid changes the concentrations of the various ionic forms of fluorescein, characterized by different yields of fluorescence. This effect is partially responsible for the change in the yield of the fluorescence emission observed at certain concentrations of the dye and the colloids. But even at the same concentration of various ionic forms of fluorescein (at the same pH of the dye solution and the dye-colloid mixture), at certain concentrations of fluorescein and the colloid, the yield of the dye fluorescence increases, which must be due to the interaction between the dye and the silver colloid. Because of the superposition of several processes influencing the dye yield of fluorescence, it is necessary to carefully establish the properties of the dye in a given environment, before considering its practical application as a marker of the metal presence. It is not excluded that similar complex effects could also occur in biological samples containing natural pigments and colloids of metals. Investigations of other dyes with other forms of metallic samples are in progress.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Poznań University of Technology, Nieszawska 13A, 60-965 Poznań, Poland.
authors.forename: Przemysław
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Siejak
authors.forename: Danuta
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Frackowiak