Functional Organic Nanocrystals for Ultralong Phosphorescence Lifetime Bioimaging Applications

Recently, organic room-temperature phosphorescence materials (ORTPs) have gathered tremendous interest due to their high brightness and ultra-long lifetime (ULL) features, and ORTPs are useful in many advanced applications, including optoelectronics, bioimaging(BI), and photomedicine.

However, at this early stage of development, processing of nanoform ORTPs and scalable synthesis lag behind other forms of ORTPs, leaving the chances for many applications nearly uncharted.

Thus, the FUNCrystals project aims to develop functional ORTP nanocrystals (NCs) for two-photon phosphorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2P-PLIM) BI applications.

In particular, the project proposes 3 main activities that capitalize on the strength of the proposed experienced researcher and the host research group (Prof.

Clemens Kaminski), in ORTP-NCs synthesis and 2P-PLIM usage. 1.Develop a synthesis process to control the size and shape of ORTP-NCs with high emission quantum yield (QY) and ULL. 2.Investigate the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties and biocompatibility analysis of ORTP-NCs. 3.Use the ORTP-NCs as nanoprobes in the 2P-PLIM to capture the high spatiotemporal and high contrast image in the primary Epithelial cell lines.

The expected results will exploit the size and shape-dependent properties of the ORTP-NCs, aiming to demonstrate property performances that can elicit commercial interest in potential nanoprobes for 2P-PLIM bioimaging applications.

This project's success will make a substantial contribution to one of the European Union's main concerns on developing nanotechnologies and advanced materials.

Overall, this proposed multidisciplinary project brings benefits to both the applicant and the host institution(University of Cambridge) in terms of mutual knowledge transfer, joint publications, new collaborations, networking actions, and personal career development of the researcher as well as increased public awareness about research resulting from the ambitious outreach actions.