Interaction of Semicarbazide and Thiosemicarbazide Derivatives of Pyrene with Normal and Reverse Micelles: Influence of Charge Density on Pyrene Due to the Side Chains

Das, Shrabanti (2013) Interaction of Semicarbazide and Thiosemicarbazide Derivatives of Pyrene with Normal and Reverse Micelles: Influence of Charge Density on Pyrene Due to the Side Chains. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (PBIP Dissertation of Shrabanti Das (11IP12)) Shrabanti_Das-11IP12-MSThesis.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB)

Abstract

In the present work we ventured to the much debated problem of measuring the penetration of water from the aqueous pool through the Stern layer toward the palisade layer of reverse micelle. For this we chose the reverse micelles of AOT in n-heptane and designed two probe molecules that are structurally similar but differing in two atoms in the side chain. A pyrene tagged semicarbazide (PySC) and a thiosemicarbazide (PyTSC) compound have been designed that are known to vary in hydrophobicity. We used this concept to incorporate these compounds inside the AOT reverse micelles, where PySC resides into the relatively hydrophobic palisade layer and PyTSC in the Stern layer. Change in electronic distribution in the molecules in their excited states alters the inherent hydro affinities. This produces an alteration in the dynamics of the compounds that is reflected in their fluorescence spectra. We analyzed the fluorescence changes of the compounds by varying the water pool size of the AOT reverse micelle and concluded that water can penetrate the Stern layer and move toward the palisade layer of the reverse micelle up to a concentration of ~1.22 M in the aqueous pool. Since reverse micelles resemble biological cells to many aspects, hence we believe that our finding would help in understanding the penetration of water molecules from the cell cytoplasm to the membrane.

Actions (login required)

View Item