The photophysics of 3,3'-diethylthiacarbocyanine iodide (DTCI), as a fluorescence probe, in liquid mixtures of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) with either trimethyl(butyl)ammonium bis((trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl)imide ([N(4)111] [Tf2N]) or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis((trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl)imide ([bmim] [Tf2N]) was studied by means of steady-state and time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The DTCI fluorescence decay was found to be double-exponential in mixtures with [N(4)111] [Tf2N] for DMSO volume fractions less than ca. 0.6 while that is single-exponential in mixtures with [bmim] [Tf2N] under the same conditions. These findings are explained in terms of the Hildebrand solubility model by assuming the existence of coursed-grained spatial micro-heterogeneities in ammonium-based ionic liquid/DMSO mixtures. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.