Poly(dimethylsiloxane) as a room-temperature solid solvent for photophysics and photochemistry
Poly(dimethylsiloxane) as a room-temperature solid solvent for photophysics and photochemistry
复制标题
DOI：
10.1039/d3cp05413f
复制
发表时间：
2024-02-05
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Vullev，Valentine I.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Clark，John A.;Robinson，Samantha;Vullev，Valentine I.
中等粘度强烈影响溶剂化物质的动力学，并可以极大地改变其激发态的失活途径。这项研究证明了聚（二甲基硅氧烷）（PDMS）作为光谱学室温固态介质的实用性。作为一种热固性弹性聚合物，PDMS 在近紫外、可见光和近红外光谱区域是透明的。它很容易模制成任何形状，形成具有明显光滑度的表面。虽然PDMS广泛用于制造微流体装置，但它在有机溶剂中膨胀，这对此类装置在使用非水流体的应用中的实用性提出了严重限制。然而，这种膨胀是可逆的，这对于将样品加载到 PDMS 固体基质中非常有益。将分子转子染料（用于染色原核细胞和淀粉样蛋白）从非粘性溶剂转移到 PDMS 中，会导致其荧光量子产率和激发态寿命出现数量级的增强，从而提供有关其失活途径的机制见解。这些发现证明了 PDMS 作为光学应用固体溶剂的潜力尚未开发。
Medium viscosity strongly affects the dynamics of solvated species and can drastically alter the deactivation pathways of their excited states. This study demonstrates the utility of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as a room-temperature solid-state medium for optical spectroscopy. As a thermoset elastic polymer, PDMS is transparent in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared spectral regions. It is easy to mould into any shape, forming surfaces with a pronounced smoothness. While PDMS is broadly used for the fabrication of microfluidic devices, it swells in organic solvents, presenting severe limitations for the utility of such devices for applications employing non-aqueous fluids. Nevertheless, this swelling is reversible, which proves immensely beneficial for loading samples into the PDMS solid matrix. Transferring molecular-rotor dyes (used for staining prokaryotic cells and amyloid proteins) from non-viscous solvents into PDMS induces orders-of-magnitude enhancement of their fluorescence quantum yield and excited-state lifetimes, providing mechanistic insights about their deactivation pathways. These findings demonstrate the unexplored potential of PDMS as a solid solvent for optical applications.