Neutrinos are fermion subatomic particles that interact only by the weak subatomic forces — making them almost impossible to detect. However, they can be produced in specific radioactive decay reactions, such as beta decay. We hypothesize the detection of double beta decay through the tagging of the Ba2+ daughter ion from 136Xe (136Xe →136Ba2+ + 2v + 2β). The proposal is to develop single molecule fluorescence imaging (SFMI) technology to investigate gaseous chemical constituents in high pressure gases (ca. 30-150 psi) at gas-solid interfaces. To achieve proper SMFI, of heterogenous self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) containing fluorophores that operate under dry conditions, and that are turned on when a covalently attached binding domain captures Ba2+. The design of different crown-ether chelating agents with diverse fluorophores that we synthesized indicated the capability of the ion sensing in the dry environment, specifically selective towards Ba2+. The further assembly studies of novel barium sensing turn-on SMFIs will demonstrate the first dry-phase chemosensor to Ba2+ cations. These molecules will enable enhanced detection of double beta-decay events in ongoing studies by the NEXT program, identifying whether neutrinos are Majorana particles.

Synthesis and spectroscopic studies of fluorophores for selective metal binding and single-molecule fluorescence imaging tags

ACS Spring 2022

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