Applications

Visualizing local viscosity using fluorescence lifetime microscopy

The use of fluorescent molecules, known as molecular rotors, is advantageous in estimating the local (nanoscale) viscosity in microheterogeneous systems, since it just requires the measurement of their fluorescence lifetime. This measurement is simpler to perform using microscope systems as corrections for photobleaching do not need to be made, as may be needed if a fluorescence anisotropy measurement was performed. The usage of molecular rotors is demonstrated using the HORIBA Scientific DynaMyc to monitor the gelation of a polysaccharide film.