Avatar and Photochemistry: Chemiluminescence
Photochemistry for an Oscar? In the movie Avatar, it plays a central role, although I must admit I didn’t see it listed in the credits… The movie is set on a planet called Pandora, and at night time, the forests of Pandora light up to give some really beautiful cinema, all in 3D! This article explains the glow in the trees, insects, inhabitants and just about everything else on Pandora at night time. Back on Earth, we’re familiar with this glow too!
When some chemicals react, they can give off or require huge amounts of energy in doing so, as existing bonds are ripped apart and new ones form. This energy is in the form of heat – reactions can give off heat (exothermic) or require heat to proceed (endothermic). More unusually, the reaction can give off large amounts of energy in the form of light. This light is called chemiluminescence. In photochemistry, we are usually concerned with providing molecules with light to activate a reaction. With chemiluminescence, it’s the other way around – a chemical reaction results in the emission of light. The classic demonstration of chemiluminescence is with a compound called, appropriately enough, luminol. Here’s a short Youtube video on it (with a rather excited chemist).
So what is happening?
Let’s look closer at the luminol reaction. When hydrogen peroxide (e.g. from household bleach) is added to luminol, in the presence of base and a catalyst (such as iron(III) which gets involved in the oxidation), 3-aminophthalate is formed. But the energy involved in the oxidation of luminol by the peroxide results in the phthalate having an electronically excited state. The releases this excess energy by emission of light, giving the blue colour observed.
Luminol reacts with hydrogen peroxide to produce an electronically excited 3-aminophthalate, which emits in the blue (450 nm)
Applications of chemiluminescence
Natural World
One of the most common observations of chemiluminescence, as any inhabitant of Pandora will know, is bio-chemiluminescence, or bioluminescence, which is where natural world has exploited the use of chemiluminescence. The most commonly known example of this is the firefly (Photinus), which uses a reaction similar to that of luminol, and an enzyme, luciferase, in place of the peroxide, along with magnesium ions to produce a glow (the colour depends on the type of fly).
Oxidation of Luciferin by luciferase in the presence of magnesium ions gives emission (e.g. in the yellow region)
As well as Pandora, back on Earth, Irish swimmers came across some beautiful examples of bioluminescence off the coast at Killiney when “spectacular green neon flashes” in the sea were observed by swimmers as they swam through water. This was determined to be the plankton Noctiluca scintillans, which is reported to be known as “Sea Ghost” or “Fire of Sea”.
Image of Noctiluca Scintillans (taken from Maria Antonia Sampayo, http://planktonnet.awi.de, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License)
Analytical Applications
Given that emission spectroscopy is such a versatile analytical tool, it is perhaps no surprise that chemiluminescence has several potential applications in the area of chemical analysis. The intensity of luminescence is proportional the the concentration of reactant. In principle, analysis does not need the same level of instrumentation as emission spectroscopy – which needs a light source to excite the sample and emission my be detectable by eye. Therefore it can be used in crude analytical tests. Luminol is used to test for blood at crimescenes – a luminol spray on any suspected blood traces results in the iron in the blood catalysing luminol chemiluminescence, and glows for up to a minute after being sprayed.
But there is more scope for its use. Two problems to its adoption as an analytical technique are that the quantum yield of emission can be low, which means that at low concentrations, the detection may be difficult. In addition to potentially poor sensitivity, long lived emission (such as those observed in glow sticks and luminol), which makes for great demonstrations, means that response time is unnecessarily long. Some work on both of these areas is advancing. Coupling the chemiluminescence interactions with metal nanoparticles harnesses the surface plasmon resonance effect, where the emission from the chemiluminescence couples or resonates with the electron density of the nanoparticles, which enhance the signal, with reports of a 4 – 10 fold increase. The efficient transfer of energy from the excited state of the reagent to the nanorparticles also significantly reduces their lifetime, hence the lingering glow. Readers interested in this work are referred to Aslan and Geddes, given below.
This being said, chemiluminescence is already in use to study a wide range of medicinal and environmental-related compounds in a technique that couples chemiluminescence with liquid chromatography (HPLC-CL). The reagents used in this technique include the now familiar luminol, which is used to investigate lipid hydroperoxides, neurotransmitters such as dopamine (which enhance the chemiluminescence), and environmentally relevant species such as organophosphorus reagents (e.g. diclorvos). The always familiar Ru(bpy)32+, which as well as everything else can exhibit chemiluminescence, undergoing reduction by analytes in high energy electron transfer reactions to produce the excited state. This system has been used to study nitrosamines, N-methylcarbamates pesticides in pear and apple samples and domoic acid which can be a factor responsible for shellfish poisoning. There are several set-ups possible for interfacing the chemiluminescence set-up with the HPLC; most simply by having an injection point after separation for the chemiluminescent reagent prior to the emission detector. A very detailed review of the use of chemiluminescence in medicinal, food and environmental analytes is that by Gámiz-Gracia et al.
Finally, it is worth noting that a lot of gas-phase reactions result in chemiluminescence. This is the basis of gas analysers, for example the nitrogen monoxide analyser. Nitrogen monoxide reacts with ozone to produce an excited state nitrogen dioxide which emits in the far visible/infrared region. The extent of luminescence can be related tot he initial concentration of NO.
Your very own magical world
If you want to set up your own version of Pandora, which cost James Cameron $250M, you can do it for a few euros, by buying some glow sticks and dotting them around. Their glow lasts for a few hours, so all you need is a little imagination during this time…
References
“Lights in Sea are Natural“, Irish Times, www.irishtimes.com, 18 October 2009
K. Aslan and C. D. Geddes, “Metal-enhanced chemiluminescence: advanced chemiluminescence concepts for 21st century“, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2009, 2556 – 2564.
Laura Gámiz-Gracia, Ana M. García-Campana, José F. Huertas-Pérez, Francisco J. Lara, “Chemiluminescence detection in liquid chromatography: Applications to clinical, pharmaceutical, environmental and food analysis—A review“, Anal. Chim. Acta, 2009, 640, 7 – 28.
Beautiful Photochemistry
I came across this nice blog recently and thought it was worth signposting here. It is called “Beautiful Photochemistry” and its author writes summaries of recent articles from some leading chemistry journals which have a photochemical basis. There are some great synopses on a range of topics within photochemistry, including one I was very happy to see on enone-alkene cycloadditions.
Beautiful Photochemistry Blog: http://beautifulphotochemistry.wordpress.com/
Quenching Mechanisms
Excited states can be deactivated in several ways – they can emit, giving off light energy, deactivate – resulting in a “vibrationally hot” ground state (i.e. energy loss as heat) or be quenched by another molecule. In this section, we will consider the process of quenching, and outline some ideas that use the process of quenching in applications. In addition, we will examine how the process of quenching can be studied to give us information on the nature of the excited state-quencher interaction. It is assumed the reader is familiar with the information presented in the Light Absorption and Fate of Excited State post.
Overview
Quenching of the excited state is a significant process because it is usually a very efficient process. The excited state of many organic compounds, for example, are efficiently quenched by the presence of oxygen, at rate constants several orders of magnitude faster than emission processes from the triplet state. (Emission from the triplet is spin forbidden, and hence has rate constants in the range 10 to 103 dm3 mol-1 s-1, whereas oxygen quenching may take place at rate constants of the order 109 dm3 mol-1 s-1. Therefore, to study the emission from triplets, we need to deaerate the sample (and have it at low temperature – see the experimental section). Quenching processes can occur by two processes – electron transfer or energy transfer. In both cases, the excited state energy of the luminophore (the luminescent species) is deactivated due to the presence of the quencher. There are two scenarios by which quenching is generally modelled, and these are discussed below.
Dynamic Quenching of an Excited State
If a solution with emitting species is studied, and for every 100 photons absorbed by the solution, 30 are re-emitted, the quantum yield of emission is said to be 0.3. What happens to the other 70? They are translated into radiationless transitions, such as deactivation. As mentioned in the Ruthenium polypyridyl photochemistry post, we can quantify the quantum yield of emission (or any process) as being the rate constant of that process (in this case emission) divided by the sum of all rate constants deactivating the excited state. If we divide the emission quantum yield in the absence of quencher by that in the presence of quencher, we can generate an expression known as the Stern-Volmer equation, as shown below.
Derivation of the Stern-Volmer Equation based on considering rate constants of deactivation in the absence and presence of quencher
The Stern-Volmer equation models what is called dynamic quenching, quenching which occurs by the quencher diffusing through solution and interacting with luminophore, resulting in a deactivation of the excited state. The emission intensity is reduced, because as well as other deactivation pathways before the presence of quencher, the presence of quencher now adds another deactivation pathway in competition with luminescence. This quenching process is controlled by how fast the quencher can diffuse through solution and “collide” with luminophore, and as diffusion is usually a very fast process in solutions, it can be very efficient.
The Stern-Volmer equation is the equation of a straight line, and hence it allows for very easy experimental determination of the quenching rate constant, kq. If the emission intensity (or lifetime) in the absence of quencher and then in the presence of incremental amounts of quencher is measured, and the resulting ratio of emission intensities (I(0)/I) is plotted as a function of quencher concentration, the resulting graph (called a Stern-Volmer plot) will have an intercept of 1 and a slope called the Stern-Volmer constant, KSV. KSV is the product of the natural radiative lifetime (the lifetime in the absence of quencher, τ0, and the quenching rate constant, kq. Knowing the slope and the natural radiative lifetime allows easy calculation of the quenching rate constant. An outline of a common experiment – quenching of a ruthenium polypyridyl complex emission with Fe3+ is shown below.
The fact that quenching can be so efficient means that it can be a useful probe in studying systems with emission properties. For example, ruthenium polypyridyl complexes have been used successfully as oxygen sensors, whereby the complex has been incorporated into a silica matrix and the resulting stub located inside packaging. In the absence of oxygen, emission is observed when the stub is irradiated with light. However, if oxygen leaches into packaging, the emission observed will be substantially reduced, as it will be quenched by the oxygen. By calibrating the reduction in intensity using a Stern-Volmer plot, it is possible to estimate the concentration (partial pressure) of oxygen in the system. The concept has applicability in food packaging and for containers holding oxygen sensitive artefacts (e.g. paintings).
Static Quenching
Dynamic quenching results from collisions between excited state and quencher. However, if the quencher is somehow associated with the luminophore in solution prior to light absorption, the association may mean that the luminophore will not emit, due to induced changes in its properties because of presence of quencher. Therefore the reduction in emission intensity will be affected by the extent to which the quencher associates to the luminophore and the number of quenchers present. The reduction in emission intensity can be quantified as follows. If the luminophore, M, associates with quencher, Q according to an equilibrium constant of association, Ks, then this association constant can be quantified as the ratio of associated luminophore-quenchers luminophore-quenchers moieties ([M-Q]) to the product of unassociated luminophore and quencher; [M][Q]. Since the total concentation of luminophore, [M]0 is equal to the sum of associated and unassociated luminophore, substitution of this into the equilibrium expression, followed by rearrangement results in another equation of a straight line, very similar in form to the Stern-Volmer equation. However, while plotting I0/I (as emission intensity can be said to be proportional to concentration) against [Q] will result in a straight line for static quenching, analogous to dynamic quenching, interpretation of the slope is different. In this case, the slope quantifies the association constant between quencher and luminophore – and therefore is useful in providing information on how these two species interact in the ground state.
Derivation of an expression for static quenching
Dynamic or Static?
The question that immediately arises now is that if plots of emission intensity against quencher concentration both produce straight line graphs, how do we know which type of quenching is occurring? The answer lies in thinking again about the nature of each type of quenching. For dynamic quenching, all luminophores are affected by the quenching process as it is probable that they will all collide with a quencher during their excited state lifetime, so both emission intensity and lifetime reduced on increasing quencher concentration. For static quenching by association, only luminophore-quencher associations result in reduction in emission, unassociated luminophores are free to luminesce as if there was no quencher present. Increasing quencher concentration affects emission intensity, because there are more associations, but not emission lifetime, as the unassociated luminophores can emit in the absence of quencher. (Note that these two scenarios are the extremes, and there are cases where a mixture of both static and dynamic quenching may occur simultaneously.)
Schematic of dynamic versus static (association) quenching
Therefore the diagnostic test for assigning whether a quenching mechanism is dynamic or static is to compare how the emission intensity and emission lifetime changes as a function of increasing concentration. In the case of dynamic quenching, plots of relative emission intensities and emission lifetimes will be th same, changing on increasing quencher concentration. For static quenching, only a plot of relative emission intensity will change, the emission lifetime plot will have slope close to zero.
Model diagnostic plots to distinguish between dynamic and static quenching
Another model of static quenching is where the quencher is in a fixed position close to the luminophore (e.g. in a frozen matrix or a zeolite). This is modelled by the Perrin model of quenching, which will be discussed in the experimental techniques section when discussing phosphorescence.
References
MK Seery, N Fay, T McCormac, E Dempsey, RJ Forster, TE Keyes, Photophysics of Ruthenium Polypyridyl Complexes formed with lacunary polyoxotungstates with iron addenda, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., (2005), 19(7), 3426 – 3433. An example showing unusual static quenching between a quencher (large polyoxometallate clusters) and a luminophore (a ruthenium complex).
B Valeur, Molecular Fluorescence: Principles and Applications, Wiley: Weinheim, 2002. Discusses the principles of dynamic and static quenching well.