Intramolecular excimer formation in macromolecules. I. Energy migration and excimer formation in copolymers exhibiting nearest‐neighbor excimer interactions

Energy migration and intramolecular excimer formation have been studied in a series of copolymers comprising 1‐vinylnaphthalene, 2‐vinylnaphthalene, and styrene with methyl methacrylate. The technique of fluorescence depolarization was used to characterize energy migration in glassy solutions of the copolymers. The extent of energy migration in these copolymers is determined by the mean sequence length of aromatic species l̄ a . Assuming that excimer formation occurs as a result of nearest‐neighbor interactions, the concentration of excimer sites in the macromolecule will be proportional to the fraction of links between aromatic species f aa . It is proposed that these sites are populated via energy migration from the site of absorption. Proportionality between the ratio of excimer to monomer emission intensities and the function l̄ a · f aa was predicted. Good agreement with this relationship was obtained in each of the copolymer systems studied. Reactivity ratios of methyl methacrylate ( r m ) in copolymerization at 70°C with the aromatic monomers ( r a ) were determined as: 1‐vinylnaphthalene— r m = 0.43, r a = 1.71: 2‐vinylnaphthalene— r m = 0.37, r a = 4.46; styrene‐ r m = 0.45, r a = 0.58.