Charge Transfer Initializes Photoexcited YOYO-1 Intramolecular Rotation and Fluorescent Quenching

25 October 2017, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

YOYO-1 is a commonly used cyanine dye for DNA staining that is fluorescently bright in DNA but very dim in water. The major assumption of its excited electron decay pathway is thermal relaxation via the rotation at a bridging methine that connects the two moieties of the molecule, i.e. photo-isomerization. In this report, we use femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to directly measure the excited electron decay, the hole refill, and the hot ground state rise and decay. The data suggest that the first step of the photo-isomerization involves a charge transfer to quench the holes and vibrational activation of the molecules to a hot ground state.

Keywords

YOYO-1
Fluorescent Quantum Yield
Ultrafast Transient Absorption Study
Charge Transfer
DNA staining dye
Chemistry

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