The synthesized C-phycocyanins (C-PCs) doped silica biomaterials were characterized by the SEM and BET surface area analysis measurement. The morphology of C-PCs doped silica biomaterials indicates that the surface of the silica cluster is formed by a great number of silica particles with an average size of between 30 and 40 nm. Silica itself is a porous structure with the average pore diameter of 2.95 nm. Pores with their diameter less than 5 nm account for 84.07%. In addition, the C-PCs can be utilized as a fluorescent protein probe to monitor influence of the protein encapsulation and to study matrix and protein interaction and stability of protein in silica matrix. Application of protein encapsulation silica materials requires biomolecules to keep bioactivity and stability on potentially unfavorable industrial conditions. The C-PCs in solution or in silicate matrix irradiated by ultraviolet ray can result in photobleaching, whereas the protein in the silica is less affected. The measured photodamage rate constant of C-PCs in buffer solution is 25 times faster than that of C-PCs in silica matrix. However, the lifetime of C-PCs in silica matrix or phosphate buffer is unaffected. These studies suggest that entrapment of C-PCs into silica matrixes not only can maintain their biological activity but also noticeably improve their photostability.
The photophysics of Zn(tetraphenylporphyrin,TPP), Zn(tetra-2,4,6-trimethylphenyl porphyrin, TMP), Zn (tetra-(o-dichlorophenyl) porphyrin, TPPCl8), Cu(tetraphenylporphyrin,TPP), Cu(tetra-2,4,6-trimethyl- phenyl porphyrin,TMP), and Cu(tetra-(o-dichlorophenyl) porphyrin, TPPCl8, TPPCl8) in several solvents have been investigated on steady state and time-resolved spectroscopy. The Cu(TPPCl8 ) is normal and shows no evidence of CT transition in the visible or near UV regions in nonpolar solvent. However, Cu(TPPCl8)shows a blue shift in the absorption spectrum and intramolecular CT bands at absorption spectra in polar solvent, which shows a fluorescence maximum emission at 650 nm and 8.4 ns lifetime. The reason can be attributed to two points. Firstly, the increase of solvent polarity can enlarge outer reorganisational energy, which is favorable to reduce the activation free energy of charger-transfer transition based on Marcus theory of electron transfer. Moreover, the internal heavy-atom effect on Cu(TPPCl8) is encouraging to stabilize the 2T1 state also, which increases the possibility of population to CT band from 2T1 state. This result is in accord with an earlier estimate of a 10 ns lifetime and CT absorption at 640 nm bands for the CT state of Cu (II) octethylporphyrins. Other possible reasons arousing unusual fluorescence like H-bonding, axial ligands, molecular aggregation are excluded.
