Influence of radiative transport on energy transfer

A model describing the radiative processes occurring in concentrated solutions of a donor able to transfer its electronic energy to an acceptor is presented. It was found that both radiative transport over donors and transfer to the acceptor modify the decay curves of the donor, the effect being more pronounced at low acceptor concentrations owing to a small absorption of the donor emission by the acceptor and an inefficient donor–acceptor nonradiative energy transfer process. Fitting or decay curves influenced by radiative transport can lead to incorrect evaluation of nonradiative energy transfer parameters if the radiative processes are not accounted for. The true nonradiative parameters can be evaluated using the theoretical decay law predicted by the model.