I-Corps: Fluorescent Dyes and Pigments by Small Molecule Isolation Lattices, SMILES

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力与荧光材料的发展有关。当用能够体现为高荧光有机固体的廉价材料取代昂贵的现有技术（如量子点）时，预计将出现商业潜力。这种材料有望创造新的价值，并在美学、亮度或色彩传输对性能至关重要的几个市场中具有商业潜力。我们的主要市场是涂料和聚合物中的着色剂。荧光增白剂是全球染料和颜料市场（每年300亿美元的行业）的重要组成部分。我们相信，我们的技术可以通过简化荧光材料的配方和加工，以及拓宽可用的颜色口味来扩大这一细分市场。该技术的直接应用将出现在建筑和安全应用的新型荧光油漆和涂料中，也可能为不断增长的3D打印材料市场提供新的用户友好的颜色选择。我们预计更多的下游应用将出现在定制生物标签技术和太阳能发电中。如果成功，更广泛的影响还包括在商业化过程中培训科学家。这个I-Corps项目提供了一个通用的工具，以解决如何逆转有机染料固态配方的荧光损失这一突出的智力挑战。这项研究的智力优势将来自于一种名为小分子隔离晶格（SMILES）的新合成荧光染料和颜料技术。该项目源于一项研究，该研究提供了一种将携带颜色的染料分子彼此隔离的方法，从而挽救了它们的荧光。广泛的原理验证实验表明，如何通过将专利化合物与现有荧光化合物混合来制备SMILES材料。结果显示，在相同的条件下，固体中的荧光，如薄膜、晶体、染料和颗粒，使传统的荧光染料不发光。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is related to the development of fluorescent materials. Commercial potential is expected to emerge when replacing costly existing technologies (like quantum dots) with inexpensive materials able that can be embodied as highly fluorescent organic solids. Such materials are expected to create new value and have commercial potential in several markets in which either aesthetics, brightness, or color transmission is critical for performance. Our primary markets of interest are colorants in paints and polymers. Fluorescent brighteners represent an important segment of the global dyes and pigments market (a $30B per year industry). We believe our technology can expand this segment by streamlining the formulation and processing of fluorescent materials, and by broadening the available color palate. Immediate applications would arise in creation of new fluorescent paints and coatings for construction and safety applications, and may also provide new user-friendly color options to the growing market for 3D printing materials. We anticipate additional downstream applications to arise in customized biolabeling technologies and solar power generation. If successful, the broader impacts also include the training of scientists in the process of commercialization. This I-Corps project provides a universal tool to address the outstanding intellectual challenge of understanding how to reverse loss of fluorescence from solid-state formulations of organic dyes. The intellectual merits will derive from new synthetic preparations of fluorescent dye and pigment technology by a method called small molecule isolation lattices, or SMILES. This project derives from research that has provided a way to insulate the color-carrying dye molecules from one another allowing their fluorescence to be rescued. A wide range of proof-of-principle experiments shows how to prepare the SMILES materials simply by mixing a proprietary compound with existing fluorescent compounds. The results show fluorescence in solids, as films, crystals, dyes, and particles under identical conditions that render conventional fluorescent dyes non-emissive.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.