Molecular strategies for ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ on polymer films have attracted considerable attention for the development of new information technologies. A versatile and relatively inexpensive strategy that can be applied to this field is the ability of patterning with fluorescent materials. This technique relies on the utilization of fluorogenic probes, i.e. fluorophores in a non-emissive state, that can be activated with spatial or temporal control to become fluorescent. Approaches like this are ingenious as they deliver a practical and viable hybridization between imaging and lithography. Herein, we have synthesized a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dye that is partially quenched through electron exchange to a covalently linked paramagnetic 2,2,6,6,-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO) nitroxide. Fluorescence is activated through ultraviolet (UVA) light decomposition of a radical initiator in the presence of the quenched fluorophore. Radical trapping by TEMPO results in the formation of a diamagnetic product which no longer quenches fluorescence. The photoactivation has further been shown to have spatial control in thin polymer films with some reversibility to a non-emissive state that can be translated to self-erasing/encoded information. Furthermore, to improve the fluorescence output of our system, as well as practical conditions for photoactivation, we investigated metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) effects by silver nanostructures (AgNPs).

Fluorescence activation and enhancement with photogenerated radicals, a pre-fluorescent probe and silver nanostructures

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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