STUDY ON THE STRUCTURE OF REVERSE MICELLES OF TRITON-X-100 AT LOW WATER-CONTENT

UVMS absorption and emission of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+), and time-resolved lumi nescence quenching of Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) by methylviologene were studied i n reverse micelles (water-in-cyclohexane microemulsion) of triton-X-10 0 at low water content (hexanol-1 as cosurfactant). From experimental results it is concluded that the probe molecules Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) were s olubilized in two different small aggregates at mole fractions of 1% w ater. Dynamic light scattering experiments however show large aggregat es in these samples indicating a secondary structure. Increasing the w ater content, small aggregates with a radius of a few nm were detected by both light scattering and luminescence quenching, as expected.