Response of fluorescent molecular rotors in ternary macromolecular mixtures

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Chi, Mingshan, Bui, Anh-Thy, Lidon, Pierre, Medina-Gonzalez, Yaocihuatl
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Chi, Mingshan
Bui, Anh-Thy
Lidon, Pierre
Medina-Gonzalez, Yaocihuatl
author_facet Chi, Mingshan
Bui, Anh-Thy
Lidon, Pierre
Medina-Gonzalez, Yaocihuatl
contents For a few decades, Fluorescent Molecular Rotors have been commonly employed as local probes of microviscosity in complex materials. However, without proper calibration, relating microviscosity to a physical parameter is unclear, which strongly limits their quantitative use in biological media for instance. In this study, the response of a molecular rotor in binary and ternary macromolecular aqueous solutions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) of different molecular weights is investigated in order to better rationalize the sensitivity of rotors to their cybotactic environment. More precisely, for the investigated composition range of ternary mixtures, it is shown that a linear mixing rule applies for fluorescence lifetime with the proportion of the two PEG, and with an increasing ratio of heavy PEG leading to larger lifetimes. These results allow to test more precisely the free volume theory, which has been proposed in the context of probing glass transition. Analysis show that while this theory semi-quantitatively captures the observation, its precise use raises some questions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_15967
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Response of fluorescent molecular rotors in ternary macromolecular mixtures
Chi, Mingshan
Bui, Anh-Thy
Lidon, Pierre
Medina-Gonzalez, Yaocihuatl
Chemical Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
For a few decades, Fluorescent Molecular Rotors have been commonly employed as local probes of microviscosity in complex materials. However, without proper calibration, relating microviscosity to a physical parameter is unclear, which strongly limits their quantitative use in biological media for instance. In this study, the response of a molecular rotor in binary and ternary macromolecular aqueous solutions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) of different molecular weights is investigated in order to better rationalize the sensitivity of rotors to their cybotactic environment. More precisely, for the investigated composition range of ternary mixtures, it is shown that a linear mixing rule applies for fluorescence lifetime with the proportion of the two PEG, and with an increasing ratio of heavy PEG leading to larger lifetimes. These results allow to test more precisely the free volume theory, which has been proposed in the context of probing glass transition. Analysis show that while this theory semi-quantitatively captures the observation, its precise use raises some questions.
title Response of fluorescent molecular rotors in ternary macromolecular mixtures
topic Chemical Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15967