Cosurfactant Impact on Probe Molecule in Reverse Micelles

A wide variety of probe molecules have been used to characterize the environment found within reverse micelles. This manuscript reports on results from steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopies of the probe molecule Coumarin 343. The steady-state spectra for the probe molecule in ternary and quaternary systems are nearly identical. However, the time-resolved studies clearly indicate substantial differences in the probe sensed by the probe molecule. Implications of these results for the interpretation of spectroscopy of probe molecules in confined media are discussed.