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The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

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Abstract Volume 18 (2013) pp 066-070
DOI 10.1007/s00897132466a

Physical Chemistry Laboratory Experiment: The Study of Silver Nanoparticles Influence on the Fluorescent Properties of Ruthenium(II) Tris(bipyridine) Chloride

Timothy R. Brewer* and Michael Zielinski

Department of Chemistry, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48160, United States, tbrewer@emich.edu
Received October 26, 2012. Accepted November 25, 2012.

Published: 22 March 2013

Abstract. A physical chemistry laboratory was designed to synthesize various sizes of silver nanoparticles and study their effects on the fluorescence of the dye ruthenium(II) tris(bipyridine) chloride. Nanoparticles were synthesized in the size range from 10 to 50 nm using previously published methods. The fluorescent quenching effect of different sizes of nanoparticles was investigated through the use of a Stern-Volmer plot of fluorescence intensity versus concentration of nanoparticle. Experimental results indicated a size-dependent quenching constant with larger nanoparticles exhibiting a larger quenching rate constant. The other significant experimental result was that for a constant concentration of nanoparticles, the fraction of dye absorbed on larger nanoparticles increased as the size of the nanoparticles increased. These results can be attributed to the nanoparticle’s surface area.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; physical chemistry; silver nanoparticles; ruthenium(II) tris(bipyridine) chloride; Stern-Volmer; fluorescence quenching

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: tbrewer@emich.edu)

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