Intense quenching of fluorescence intensity of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) molecules in presence of gold nanoparticles

We study the quenching of fluorescence intensity of 40 g/L poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) PVP molecules by varying the content of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) from 1 to 5 μM in 1-butanol. A profound exponential decay of the emission band intensity in the π ← nπ* band of the PVP molecules at ~392 nm upon gradual addition of the GNPs demonstrates an existence of an excited state interaction of NPs with the PVP molecules in a gold colloid in 1-butanol. Such quenching is caused by the non-bonding electron transfer from the O-atom of carbonyl group of the PVP molecules to the surface of the GNP. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) study corroborates the spectroscopic results. A linear Stern–Volmer plot with a quenching constant of 2.23 × 106 M−1 reveals dynamic quenching in a non-aqueous NF. A mechanism of fluorescence quenching was proposed in support of XPS and images taken from hybrid nanostructure using transmission electron microscope. Study on quenching of fluorescence intensity of PVP fluorophore in the presence of GNPs is useful for optoelectronic devices and biosensors.