Ground- and excited-state proton transfer reaction of 3-hydroxyflavone in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine liposome membrane.

3-Hydroxyflavone (3HF), a molecule that exhibits excited-state intramolecular proton transfer, has been studied for its fluorescence characteristics in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) liposome membrane. 3HF partitions to the lipid bilayer membrane with a reasonably large partition coefficient. On excitation at 417 nm, a weak emission from the ground-state anion species was observed at 483 nm, whereas excitation at absorption maxima (345 nm) gives the usual intense fluorescence of the phototautomeric emission at 530 nm. In this article, we report the observation of a ground-state proton transfer reaction of 3HF in DMPC liposome membrane.