FLUORESCENCE-SPECTRA OF ANTHRACENE DISSOLVED IN VINYLIC AND OLEFINIC POLYMERS

In this work we present a review of the applications of anthracene as a fluorescent probe to follow relaxation processes and to determine the temperature of relaxation processes in different polymers. We also describe some photophysical properties of anthracene that are important to determine the size and to characterize the type of domains in the solid polymer where the molecular probes are localized. We have demonstrate that anthracene dissolved in low density polyethylene exhibits a well-resolved vibronic fluorescence spectrum at low temperatures. In the case of anthracene dissolved in poly(vinyl acetate), poly(vinyl chloride) and polystyrene we observed low vibronic resolution due to the coupling of out-of-plane vibrational modes of the probe with polymer matrices. These spectral characteristics are related to the vibronic structure of the anthracene fluorescence, which is also dependent on both the rigidity and dimensions of the free volumes of the matrices.6212713