Description:
Executive Summary
Researchers at the University of
Virginia have developed a family of light-emitting boron dye compounds that are
easily tuned and that change appearance with scratching and
heating.
Background
Chemical dyes are used for
innumerable applications, from biomedical diagnosis to LEDs in television
screens. The application of each particular dye is a function of its
environmental sensitivity, intensity and wavelength, among other features.
Few chemical dyes, however, show useful changes in appearance with
mechanical perturbance, such as scratching, especially together with the ability
of the dye to return its original state with heating. The only similarly
performing existing chemical dye contains gold and is much less reversible.
Invention Description
These compounds, conceived
entirely in the lab of U.Va.’s Cassandra L. Fraser, Ph.D., incorporate
biocompatible, environmentally sensitive boron fluorophores into various
chemical frameworks that have shown remarkable novel properties. Through
chemical modification of a series of the earlier stage compounds, the
researchers determined that they can create reversible luminescence by
scratching the solid-state dye and also tune the color through various
side-group modifications.
Advantages
These materials
offer the following advantages:
- Visual color detection
- Novelty over any other material
- Complete reversibility without quenching
Applications
Potential applications for this
technology include novelty products such as toys as well as sensors for
mechanical instability.
