The photochemistry of a novel photosensitizer H[TBC(O’Pr)4P(OH)],and the photo-oxidation of amino acids sensitized by H[TBC(OiPr)4P(OH)] have been investigated in the AOT/H2O/toluene reversed micellar system.Absorption and fluorescence measurements indicate that H[TBC(O’Pr)4P(OH)] can interact with the re versed micelles by adsorption to the micellar surface,resulting in the disaggregation of the sensitizer and the enhance ment of its photoactivity.In micellar solutions,H[TBC(O’Pr)4P(OH)] can efficiently photo-generate O2(Type Ⅱ mechanism) and O2(Type Ⅰ mechanism) as shown by stationary photolysis and ESR spin-trapping techniques Amino acids dissolved in water pools of reversed micelles can be photo-oxidized via Type Ⅱ mechanism as sensitized by H[TBC(O’Pr)4P(OH)].The photo-oxidation of tryptophan follows the first-order kinetics,while that of tyrosine is much slower.Kinetic studies of the photodynamic behavior in this microheterogeneous system shows that the micro-heterogeneity can alter the mechani