FWF - Lumineszenz-Sensoren - Indicators for long-wave excitable luminescent sensors

The project is aimed to design luminescent sensors which can be interrogated with long-wave emitting light sources. Most luminescent sensors described in the literature rely on indicators which are excitable in the blue and green parts of the spectrum ( greater 550 nm) or even require excitation with the UV light. The established systems used for practical applications also make use of such indicators. It is well known that short-waved excitation is accompanied by many practical difficulties which become increasingly pronounced with decreasing of the excitation wavelength. Those include interferences from the probed medium such inner filter effect, autofluorescence and light straying. Instrumental aspects should also be considered. Cheap and high qualitative optical and optoelectronic components are mostly available for the wavelength > 600 nm. Long-wave excitable sensors are thus highly advantageous; their successful development is however hindered by lack of indicators with desirable properties. The long-wave excitable state-of-the-art indicators do not fully meet the requirements for their application in luminescent sensors (such as brightness, photostability, solubility, sensitivity and suitability for immobilization). The project is focused on synthesis and characterization of novel long-wave excitable luminescent indicators with defined properties. These should be used to design sensors for dissolved oxygen, pH, as well as acidic and basic gases, which is the aim of the second part of the project. The new materials will make possible to extend the optical sensing technology to so far not realizable applications (such as subcutaneous sensing of the analytes), but also to increase the reliability of the established methods.