XPost: sci.chem   
   From: a202010@lycos.com-   
      
   Salmon Egg wrote:   
      
   > Is it possible to make a useful analogy from the concepts of chromophore   
   > and auxochromes in dyes to the concepts of activators and sensitizers in   
   > solid state fluorescence?   
      
      
   for dyes, the chromophore and auxochrome are covalently bonded   
   functional group components of the dye molecule, whereas,   
      
   in solid state fluorescence the activators and sensitizers   
   are, generally, metal ions incorporated into another 'host'   
   ionic crystal lattice that may not fluoresce in the absence   
   of these activators and/or sensitizers.   
      
      
   in this regard, you could say it was as if   
   the solvent in which the dye would be placed,   
   had no color of its own, but when you add the dye,   
   the solvent/solvate mixture is colored,   
      
   but;   
      
   sort of like, for example a CaF2 lattice may have no   
   appreciable fluorescence, but, when you 'dope' in   
   Eu3+ ions, the CaF2 acts like a "solvent" for the   
   luminescent europium ions.   
      
    i don't think the 'dopant' is really   
   making the host lattice luminesecent   
   whereas   
      
   the chromophore and the auxochrome,   
   do make the dye molecule colorful.   
      
      
   if you change the 'solvent' crystal lattice,   
   but keep the 'activator' ion, you may get   
   different or more intense colors.   
      
      
   meaning, the 'dopant' is the source of the luminositity   
      
   but, if you broke off the chromophore or the auxochrome   
   from the dye molecule, and looked at it in isolation,   
   you would probably find that these functional groups   
   had no 'color' of their own.   
      
      
   there's a lot of similarities,   
      
   why don't you make up an analogy?   
      
      
      
      
   > Can a dopant be considered to be an auxochrome?   
      
      
   if you were to say that a 'sensitizer' heightens   
   the luminosity of the 'activator,' then you could   
   say it was 'like' an auxochrome which may heighten   
   the intensity of the chromophore's color,   
      
      
   is it -possible- to make a useful analogy?   
      
      
   maybe sort of...   
      
      
      
   > Has anyone developed a meaningful model of a dye as the   
   > quantum version of a small classical antenna?   
      
   lots of them are conjugated double bond sytems   
   but the distance between single and double bonds   
   probably doesn't change much so it would be the   
   length of the conjugated system that may be   
   variable like an antenna which can be opened   
   and closed like rabbit ears.   
      
   meaning, i'd wonder if a single dye molecule could   
   be varied likrabbit ears, but a series of differently   
   sized dye molecules could be varied like rabbit ears,   
   but this would be difficult.   
      
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