Selective Enhancement of Carbon Nanotube Photoluminescence by Resonant Energy Transfer

Abstract

Highly selective: Enhancement of the photoluminescence (PL) emission efficiency of selected chiral forms of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is presented (see figure). Excitation of Nile blue A in the presence of SWCNTs results in the quenching of its fluorescence. The energy is resonantly transferred to the (7,5) SWCNT whereas the (8,7) tube is not in resonance; hence, its PL remains unaffected.We report on a simple method for enhancing the efficiency of photoluminescence (PL) emission from selected chiral forms of semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The method is based on the use of a fluorescent dye (Nile blue A) that shows the capability of resonant energy transfer on to nanotubes. The excitation of Nile blue A in the presence of SWCNTs results in the quenching of its fluorescence and the energy is resonantly transferred to certain chiral forms. The PL emission from these chiral forms shows a marked increase in efficiency signifying the occurrence of Förster type resonant energy transfer (FRET). Due to its simplicity, this procedure has widespread implications for the detection of carbon nanotubes as well as for their use as fluorophores in FRET-based in vivo and in vitro biological applications.

Applications of the Static Quenching of Rhodamine B by Carbon Nanotubes

“…[9][10][11][13][14][15] The intrinsic physical and chemical properties of both the species remain unchanged through this interaction. [9,16] By contrast, in static quenching, hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions lead to the formation of a non-fluorescent groundstate complex between the fluorophore and the quencher with new physical and/or chemical properties. [12,16] Apart from quenching phenomena, charge transfer based donor-acceptor interactions might also occur.…”

“…[9][10][11] Quenching of dye photoluminescence requires close proximity between the quencher and the dye. Depending on the chemical nature of the dye and its interaction, two types of quenching may occur: collisonal/dynamic and static quenching.…”

“…As energy transfer has been proposed as the common mechanism for dye interactions with nanotubes, [9][10][11] we investigated the band-gap fluorescence (in the near-infrared) emitted from HiPCO and CoMo-CAT nanotubes with and without RB. However, no significant fluorescence enhancement [9] could be detected upon addition of RB (see Supporting Information), suggesting that energy transfer is not the predominant mechanism here. In order to identify the quenching mechanism as being dynamic or static, fluorescence emission data were collected at different temperatures.…”

Determination of binding strength for the supramolecular complexation of a designed bisporphyrin with C60, C70 and their derivatives employing absorption spectrophotometric, fluorescence and quantum chemical calculations

“…Fullerenes have proved to be a rich platform on which to conduct charge-separation (CS) studies [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. These threedimensional building blocks are now readily available and exhibit three characteristics of great relevance for energy transfer reactions for the following reasons: (1) fullerenes are extremely good electron acceptors [27,28]; (2) fullerenes undergo multiple derivatization processes and can form a number of isomers in which two hexagon-hexagon edges have reacted to provide the attachment point for other molecules to be tethered [29][30][31]; and (3) primarily because of its rigid structure, fullerenes possess a remarkably low reorganization energy upon energy transfer reactions [32][33][34].…”

Strong photoluminescence from diameter-modulated single-walled carbon nanotubes

“…Photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectroscopy of the bundle and individual SWNTs has been recently studied. [10][11][12][13] The PL spectra of SWNTs bundles have been assigned to the intertube excitons energy transfer (EET), in which excitons from the larger bandgap tubes migrate to the smaller bandgap tubes and radiatively recombine. [10][11][12][13] EET is a well-known phenomenon in conjugated polymers, biological systems, and quantum structures 17-20 that has also been identified in SWNTs.…”