The Effects of Different Acids on Aggregation of A Cyanine Dye

摘要

The different acids were selected to investigate their effects on aggregation of a cyanine dye. It was found that, through UV-vis spectra, stronger acids would promote the cyanine dye to form J aggregates while the weaker acids did not make the dye self aggregated. Based on the prior experimental results we give a hypothesis that the stronger acids could transfer the dye from sulfonate to sulfonic acid. Moreover, the morphology of J aggregates treated with stronger acid was observed with Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and was interlaced branches with average diameters of about 200nm.