Studies of synthetic polymers by nonradiative energy transfer.

Nonradiative energy transfer between fluorescent labels attached to polymers has been used to characterize polymer miscibility, the interpenetration of chain molecules in solution, micelle formation in graft copolymers, the unfolding of collapsed chain molecules in polymer melts, and the transfer of energy absorbed by a large number of donor labels to a small number of acceptors by an "antenna effect." The change in the emission spectrum after ionomer solutions with different fluorescent counterions were mixed provided rate constants for counterion interchange. The fluorescence behavior of dispersions of donor-labeled polymers stabilized by a graft copolymer with acceptor fluorophores in the solution phase led to inferences about the morphology of the dispersed particles.