Abstract
DHERE AND CASTELLI1 reported the delayed emission of riboflavin at approximately 6000 Å and described it as a phosphorescence. Szent-Gyorgyi2 found that if the phosphorescence was to be seen dissolved oxygen had to be present. Steele3 was able to measure the emission spectrum of the riboflavin phosphorescence, maximum at 6030 Å, only in the presence of dissolved oxygen. Shiga and Piette4 using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy confirmed the oxygen effect and suggested that the phosphorescent emission was prolonged by an inhibition of the non-radiative triplet–singlet transition. As this effect of oxygen, increasing the lifetime of a triplet energy term, is in direct contrast with its well known marked quenching of molecular phosphorescences by shortening the lifetimes of the triplets, presumably by paramagnetic perturbation of the triplet–singlet transition, we have looked for an explanation of the paradoxical increase in the triplet lifetime of riboflavin in the presence of oxygen.
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References
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STEELE, R., CUSACHS, L. Energy Terms of Oxygen and Riboflavin—a Biological Quantum Ladder?. Nature 213, 800–801 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213800a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/213800a0
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