Torsional Dynamics of Thioflavin T in Room Temperature Ionic Liquids: An Effect of Heterogeneity of the Medium

The ultrafast excited-state dynamics of a fibril binding dye, thioflavin T (ThT), was reported in two room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs): 1-Butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide ([BmPr][NTf2]) and methyl-trioctylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([N1888][NTf2]). Previously, in most of the studies, it was observed that the excited-state dynamics of the ThT dye were dependent on the viscosity of the medium. By using the RTILs, we have demonstrated that the excited-state dynamics of ThT are not only viscosity dependent, but also dependent on the heterogeneous nature of medium. The effect of structural heterogeneity present in neat RTILs on the excited-state dynamics of ThT was observed. For both the RTILs, excitation wavelength dependency on the emission properties of ThT was observed. This work has been published in ChemPhysChem (2013, 14, 3400 – 3409).