Variable Temperature visible/near-infrared emission infrastructure for materials applications

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Many materials emit light, which can then harnessed for many applications. This proposal seeks funding for a fluorimeter - an instrument which non-destructively excites a sample with a tunable wavelength of light and then measures the light that is emitted from the sample; the resulting data is an emission spectrum. The requested fluorimeter will allow SFU materials science researchers to measure emission spectra of solid, liquid and thin-film materials in an effort to design and create new advanced materials for a wide range of applications. The use of Near-infrared (NIR) light (>750 nm) in particular has gained the interest of many researchers in materials chemistry, bio/medical sciences, and nanotechnology and thus a fluorimeter that can detect emissions from the visible light range into the NIR - namely from 300-1700 nm - is requested (most fluorimeters cover only the visible range, from 300-800 nm). In addition, the proposed instrument will measure emission from 77K-500K by using a cryostat/heater. This instrument will help develop sensors for toxic gases (Leznoff) and metals (Yu), white-light emitting materials (Leznoff), advance solar energy research by targeting plasmonic materials (Leach), design new drug delivery or therapeutic treatments triggered by NIR light (Branda) and gain a new understanding of electronic structure of redox-active molecules and catalysts (Storr). To bring these applications to fruition, the NIR emission properties of the target materials must be measured and analyzed. However, there is no infrastructure at SFU capable of measuring NIR emission at any temperature. As our research urgently requires the ability to conduct this critical analysis, the requested fluorimeter will be an invaluable resource for materials chemistry researchers at SFU and will permit currently out-of-reach fundamental questions and applications about many new materials to be addressed. In addition, many of the nearly 50 graduate/undergraduate students we supervise will be introduced to this invaluable and industrially relevant tool for the first time, an important new training opportunity at SFU.