Nonradiative Deactivation of the Fluorescent Ag<sub>16</sub>-DNA and Ag<sub>10</sub>-DNA Emitters: The Role of Water
Ruslan R. Ramazanov, Rinat T. Nasibullin, Dage Sundholm, Theo Kurtén, Rashid R. Valiev
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The luminescent quantum yield of silver-cluster emitters stabilized by short oligonucleotides (Ag N -DNA) may be efficiently tuned by replacing nucleobases in their stabilization DNA matrices with analogues. In the present study, we proposed a valuable and straightforward theoretical methodology for assessing the photophysical behaviors emerging in Ag N -DNA emitters after excitation. Using green Ag 10 -DNA and near-IR Ag 16 -DNA emitters we demonstrate how point guanine/inosine replacement could affect the photophysical rate constants of radiative/nonradiative processes. The main deactivation channel of the fluorescence of Ag 16 -DNA is intersystem crossing, which is in line with experimental data, whereas for Ag 10 -DNA the calculations overestimate the intersystem crossing rate possibly due to pure solvent contributions.