Studies of the antenna effect in polymer molecules V. Determination of the extent of singlet energy migration in a phenanthrene — Containing polymer by fluorescence quenching

A modification of a Stern‐Volmer fluorescence quenching experiment was used to determine the extent of singlet energy migration between phenanthrene chromophores in poly(9‐phenanthrylmethyl methacrylate). This system avoids the problems of nonexponential fluorescence decay, inhomogeneous quencher concentrations and complication by the formation of excimers. The contribution to the distance travelled by the singlet excitation during the excited state lifetime as a result of energy migration was shown to correspond to about a third of the distance diffused by an oxygen molecule during the same time.