A first principles study of fluorescence quenching in rhodamine B dimers: how can quenching occur in dimeric species?

Rhodamine B (RhB) is widely used in chemistry and biology due to its high fluorescence quantum yield. In high concentrations, the quantum yield of fluorescence decreases considerably which is attributed to the formation of RhB dimers. In the present work, a possible mechanism of fluorescence quenching in RhB dimers is investigated with the use of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The excited states of monomeric and dimeric RhB species have been studied both in the gas phase and in solution with the use of the TD-BLYP/6-311G* method. Results of the calculations suggest that quenching can occur via an internal conversion to the charge-transfer singlet excited states, which can be followed by an intersystem crossing with the charge-transfer triplet states. A possibility to reduce the loss of the fluorescence quantum yield is discussed.