The rate constants for the quenching of the excited states of metal ions and complexes in homogeneous fluid solution are reported in this compilation. Values of kq for dynamic, collisional processes between excited species and quenchers have been critically evaluated, and are presented with the following information, among others, from the original publications, when available: description of the solution medium, temperature at which kq was determined, experimental method, range of quencher concentration used, lifetime of the excited state in the absence of quencher, activation parameters, quenching mechanism. Data collection is complete through the end of 1986, and covers the coordination compounds of 26 metals, including the ions and complexes of the inner-and outer-transition metals, and porphyrin complexes of nontransition metals. Data for 261 excited states quenched by more than 400 inorganic quenchers and 600 organic quenchers have been extracted from almost 500 publications. The introduction to the work contains a discussion of the conceptual background to quenching, including a general treatment of the kinetics, an explanation of the tables, and a list of recent review articles. Uncommon kin~tics mechanisms and equations, usedto obtain the reported values of kq, are discussed in detail as part of the notes to the tables. Indexes of excited states, quenchers, and authors are appended.In this mechanism, kd is the rate constant for the bimolecular diffusional encounter of *S and Q, which can be calculated by use of the Debye-Smoluchowski equation [M. V. Smoluchowski, Phys. Z. 17, 557 (1916); P. Debye, Trans. Electrochem. Soc. 82, 265 (1942) ], andk _ d is the rate con-J.
