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Mechanochromic Chemical Sensors

Description:

Courtesy of Fraser Lab

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.

Patent Information:
For Information, Contact:
Christopher Paschall
Licensing Manager
UVA
cdp8x@virginia.edu
Inventors:
Cassandra Fraser
Guoqing Zhang
Keywords:
Electronics
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