The search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, an unobserved extremely rare nuclear process, is recognized as the key to understanding the nature of the neutrino and the dominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe. One nuclear reaction that shows special promise for probing Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay is 136Xe = 136Ba2+ + 2e. Successful detection of this nuclear reaction requires an extremely sensitive detector, which may be realized by detecting the Barium daughter ions (136Ba2+) from the decay of 136Xe at the single molecule level. Our group has developed the fundamentally new approach of Single Molecule Fluorescence Imaging as a technique to achieve this ultra-low background sensitivity to neutrinoless double beta decay. In this report, we present the synthesis and application of Ba2+ selective chemosensors specially designed to function under the conditions of a Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay experiment. Several classes of chemosensor films including polymeric chemosensor and monolayers are assessed for their relative responsiveness, dry-phase activity, and single molecule sensitivity through fluorescence Imaging. One promising candidate—a naphthalimide based chemosensor—is found to be highly selective and sensitive to Barium ions and can be resolved at the target single molecule level. Future work regarding design, synthesis, and challenges of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of these chemosensors on silicon substrate and glass will also be discussed.

Development of selective, dry-functional and single molecule sensitive on-off barium chemosensors for neutrinoless double beta decay

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.