Resonance Energy Transfer Studies from Derivatives of Thiophene Substituted 1,3,4-Oxadiazoles to Coumarin-334 Dye in Liquid and Dye-Doped Polymer Media

In the present work, we have carried out energy transfer studies using newly synthesised derivatives of thiophene substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles namely, 2-(-4-(thiophene-3-yl)phenyl)-5-(5-(thiophene-3-yl)thiophene-2-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole [TTO], 2-(-4-(benzo[b]thiophene-2-yl)phenyl)-5-(5-(benzo[b]thiophene-2-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiozole [TBO] and 2-(4-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)phenyl)-5-(5-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)thiophen-2-yl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole [TMO] as donors and laser dye coumarin-334 as acceptor in ethanol and dye-doped polymer (poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)) media following steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence methods. Bimolecular quenching constant (k q), translation diffusion rate parameter (k d), diffusion length (D l), critical transfer distance (R 0), donor- acceptor distance (r) and energy transfer efficiency (E T) are calculated. It is observed that, critical transfer distance is more than the diffusion length for all the pairs. Further, bimolecular quenching constant is also more than the translation diffusion rate parameter. Hence, our experimental findings suggest that overall energy transfer is due to Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between donor and acceptor in both the media and for all the pairs. In addition, considerable increase in fluorescence intensity and energy transfer efficiency is observed in dye-doped polymer matrix systems as compared to liquid media. This suggests that, these donor-acceptor pairs doped in PMMA matrix may be used for applications such as energy transfer dye lasers (ETDL) to improve the efficiency and photostability, to enhance tunability and for plastic scintillation detectors.