Stable, Highly Luminescent Copper Nanoclusters: Synthesis, Optical Studies and Application in Imaging and Sensing

Project: Research

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Description

Noble metal nanoclusters (NCs) are tiny colloidal nanoparticles composed of a few tosome hundreds of atoms, with a metal core size typically less than 2 nm. As well as theirsmall size, they have low toxicity and good biocompatibility and they may exhibitreasonably strong photoluminescence (PL), which makes them potentially useful as bio-labels.Numerous studies on luminescent Au and Ag NCs have already been performed.Compared to these two rather expensive metals, copper is a cheap and earth abundantelement. Applications of Cu NCs are still limited by their relatively low emissionquantum yield and a lack of detailed understanding of the PL mechanisms. Our recentwork (Nanoscale 2016; Adv. Sci. 2016) made a foundation towards two methods toimprove the emission quantum yield of Cu NCs to the values exceeding 20%, using aproper ligand treatment and aggregation-induced emission enhancement. In this project,we will capitalize on these initial findings focusing on unraveling the PL mechanisms ofCu NCs by performing advanced optical spectroscopy studies, probing carrierrecombination processes and correlating structural and chemical properties of Cu NCswith different sized metal cores, types of ligands, and environments. After revealing theorigins of the PL, Cu NCs with high emission quantum yields (exceeding 40%) will besynthesized directly by wet-chemical means, and/or proper post-synthetic treatmentswill be developed to improve their emission characteristics and optical/chemical stability.This will be achieved by embedding Cu NCs in metal organic frameworks (MOFs) orcoating them with thin silica shells. The resulting stable, strongly emissive Cu NCs willbe used for the two-photon imaging of biological entities and chemical sensing ofexplosives.

Detail(s)

Project number9042554
Grant typeGRF
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/01/1826/11/21