Improved analysis of excited state proton transfer kinetics by the combination of standard and convolution methods.

We wish to report a powerful methodology for analysis and interpretation of complex fluorescence decays and other kinetic data, based on the addition of convolution analysis to standard (individual and global) analysis. The method was applied to cases involving excited state proton transfer of flavylium salts in water, in water-1,4-dioxane mixtures and in micellar solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The results clearly support the proposal of the intermediacy of a proton-base geminate pair in environments other than water.