title: 1-Naphthol as an excited state proton transfer fluorescent probe for sensing bound-water hydration of polyvinyl alcohol.
abstract: When 1-naphthol incorporated polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films are allowed to swell in water, there is a loss of fluorescence intensity of the neutral form with a concomitant increase of the anionic form fluorescence intensity. This fluorescence response due to the excited state prototropism (ESPT) of 1-naphthol is very sensitive to the initial stage of hydration of the PVA. Using an existing model of hydrogel swelling and DSC experiments, it was reasoned that 1-naphthol senses the bound-water component of PVA hydration. Thus, 1-naphthol is proposed as an ESPT fluorescent sensor for the specific sensing of bound-water hydration of PVA hydrogel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
authors.forename: Anitha C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mishra