Novel technology for efficient molecular Infra Red to Visible light upconversion: applications in bio-imaging, solar energy, security

Profil Titel	Novel technology for efficient molecular Infra Red to Visible light upconversion: applications in bio-imaging, solar energy, security
Referenz	11 CH 84FB 3MF0
Herkunftsland	Switzerland
Kooperationsart	Angebot
Eintrag/Änderung	2011-08-29 / 2011-08-29
Status	Dieses Profil ist abgelaufen! Falls Sie denoch Interesse haben, kontaktieren Sie uns. (2012-08-23)

Kurzfassung

The present technology developed by Swiss scientists allows the molecular upconversion of low energy near infra red (IR) light to higher energy visible wavelengths. This conversion opens new avenues in many different material and life science fields. Huge opportunities arise in bio-imaging, dye sensitized solar and organic photovoltaic cells and counterfeiting materials. License agreement and/or technical co-operation are sought.

Details

The optical upconversion material developed by the Swiss scientists allows absorbing infra red (IR) light and emitting visible light, in other words the out coming light has a decreased wavelength and an increased energy compared to the incident light.

Molecular upconversion is a very challenging property to achieve when designing molecular systems. The Swiss team reported an isolated molecular system, with a special physicochemical design - a molecular trinuclear d-f-d complex (see figure), capable of upconverting near IR into visible light wavelengths.

The number of applications potentially benefiting from the novel molecular system and the compounds from the family of compounds, protected by the pending patent application, is huge.

Below are a couple of examples:
In bio-imaging, downconversion is currently the property of most common chromophores employed. State of the art downconversion either generates autofluorescence and therefore creates high levels of background noise, which can swamp the signal, or causes photodamage of the biological sample. Another disadvantage with downconversion is the need of expensive cameras detecting for instance infra red wavelengths. With excitation in near infra red it is now possible to penetrate deeper into the biological sample without damaging its properties and by generating extremely low background noise. Since the output is in the visible (e.g. green), classical and cheap CDD cameras can be employed to detect the signal.

In solar energy, presently dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and organic photovoltaic cells cannot benefit from the infra red spectrum of the solar light. The current technologies are therefore failing in capturing a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum of sun on earth. The novel molecular system, if integrated into the cells, allows extracting energy also from IR wavelengths and therefore dramatically increases the conversion yield of the latter.

In security applications the molecular system can be used in anti-counterfeiting solutions such as tags.

Innovative Aspects:
1) The molecular system has a number of mobility and dispersion advantages over nano-particles currently available in a few catalogues.
2) Well separated excitation (750nm, near IR) and emission (540 green) spectra.
3) Bio-imaging is possible without producing autofluorescence and damaging the properties of the biological samples.
4) Bio-imaging is possible without the use of expensive infra red cameras.
5) Bio-imaging is possible with deep penetration of biological samples.
6) DSSCs are enabled to capture infra red light.