MOLIFE RESEARCH SEMINAR: Dr. Resch-Genger

Dr. Resch-Genger, BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung Berlin.

Methods for the Determination of the Optical properties and the Surface Chemistry of Fluorescent Particles

Würth, C.; Behnke, T.; Moser, M.; Schneider, R.; Kraft, M.; Pauli, J.; Kaiser, M.; Güttler, A.; Resch-Genger, U. - Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin, Germany - Contact: ute.resch@bam.de

Abstract

Fluorescent particles like nm- and m-sized polymeric beads doped or labeled with different types of fluorophores and nanocrystalline systems like quantum dots and upconversion phosphors emitting in the visible (vis), near-infrared (NIR), and IR (infrared) region are of increasing importance as fluorescent reporters for bioanalysis and medical diagnostics. The assessment and comparison of material performance and the development of rational design strategies for improved systems requires suitable spectroscopic tools for the determination of signal-relevant optical properties and analytical tools for the determination of the number of surface groups, ligands, biomolecules and /or fluorophores per bead. In this respect, suitable spectroscopic tools for the characterization of the optical properties of such materials like photoluminescence quantum yields and brightness values and the determination of their surface chemistry are introduced. This includes integrating sphere setups for absolute measurements of fluorescence quantum yields of liquid and solid, transparent and scattering materials in the wavelength region of 350 nm to 1600 nm at varying excitation power densities for the study of multi-photon processes and simple optical assays, validated by comparison with established analytical techniques relying on different detection principles. Here, different examples for the optical and analytical characterization of different types of nanoscale reporters are presented. 

Dr. Resch-Genger is an Invited guest of Dr. Andreas Hennig,  ( a.hennig@jacobs-university.de)