Growth and Energy Transfer of Newly Discovered Fluorescence in Polystyrene Fine Particles

This is a following-up paper about the newly discovered fluorescence emissions observed in polystyrene fine particles. The details will be discussed regarding how and when these new fluorescence emissions appear, and how energy transfer occurs in different fluorophores. It is found that the fluorescence emissions grow mostly after the first day’s sitting under ambient conditions and the first two days of vacuum drying. The fluorescence is still changing after 3 months, indicating polystyrene chains are not in an equilibrium state. The absorption peaks and emission peaks have large overlap that can lead to efficient energy transfer. An attempt is also made to categorize the emission and absorption peaks by the number of phenyl groups in their originating fluorophores.