(Press-News.org) Images
A new blue fluorescent molecule set new top emission efficiencies in both solid and liquid states, according to a University of Michigan-led study that could pave the way for applications in technology and medicine.
Able to absorb light and emit it at lower energy levels, fluorescent molecules called fluorophores glow in OLED displays and help doctors and scientists figure out what's happening in cells and tissues. They need to be solid in displays and many sensing applications, but liquids are typically preferred for biological uses. Most fluorophores don't work well in both forms, but this one does.
"The fluorescent material reached record-breaking brightness and efficiency with 98% quantum efficiency in the solid state and 94% in solution," said Jinsang Kim, the Raoul Kopelman Collegiate Professor of Science and Engineering in the U-M Department of Materials Science and Engineering who led the study, which is published in Nature Communications.
Often, engineers designing fluorophores start in solution, exploring the optical properties of individual molecules, but run into problems in their solid-state applications when fluorophore molecules contact each other.
"Fluorophores behave very differently in the solid state, which then requires more rational molecular engineering effort for structural modification," Kim said "By investigating and establishing a molecular design principle to make fluorophores that are bright both in solution and solid states, we have reduced development time and cost for various future applications."
The initial discovery of the versatile fluorophore—called TGlu for short—was unexpected for lead author Jung-Moo Heo, U-M postdoctoral research fellow of materials science and engineering.
"TGlu was an intermediate step for another chemical design, but during purification I found it was surprisingly highly emissive, not only in solution but also in solid state," Heo said.
The discovery led to the systematic study to establish the optimal design. The result was a simple design: a single benzene ring core—six carbon atoms joined in a hexagon. The researchers positioned two groups that give away electrons, called donor groups, across the ring from one another. Next to the donors, they placed two acceptor groups, which withdraw electrons, across the ring from one another.
"This so-called quadrupolar structure symmetrically distributes charge across the molecule, providing stable emission in various environments," Heo said.
Because the ring has only six points, donor and acceptor groups are positioned next to each other. This spatial arrangement reduces the energy gap compared to other similar molecules within a compact framework, which means the fluorophore needs a relatively small amount of energy to move an electron from the ground state to an excited state—similar to jumping up a rung on a ladder.
However, the molecule’s small size means overall conjugation length remains limited—meaning electrons cannot spread out too far across the molecule. This keeps the absolute energy gap—the distance between ladder rungs—wide enough to emit blue light instead of shifting towards narrower energy gap colors like red.
Typically, small band gaps come with an efficiency drawback. When in the excited state on the higher rung of the ladder, an electron can either emit light as it comes back down to the ground state or lose energy as heat through vibration. Often, small band gaps mean more heat loss, reducing the quantum yield—an efficiency metric expressed as the percentage of absorbed UV light that gets reemitted as visible light relative to the amount lost as heat.
After trying a series of acceptor groups, the researchers found one that stabilizes the excited state. Even with the small band gap, this acceptor group prevents heat loss by restricting access to what are known as conical intersections, which function as "exit doors" for energy leakage. This unexpected behavior, called an Inverted Energy Gap Law, was confirmed both by experiments and quantum chemical simulations.
In the solid state, the acceptor groups, which were intentionally designed to be bulky, prevent the molecules from getting too close to one another which causes fluorophores to lose brightness as energy escapes as heat instead of light, a phenomenon known as quenching.
The small, highly-efficient fluorophore is simple to produce—only requiring three steps—which increases its scalability while reducing production costs.
The current TGlu design fluoresces blue light. As next steps, the researchers will adjust the band gap, and thus the color. Further, while a high quantum yield from light excitation is promising, device performance under electrical excitation requires separate testing due to additional loss mechanisms. Heo also plans to work toward a phosphorescent version of the molecule, as phosphors are overall more energy-efficient than fluorophores, for use in display technology.
Autonomous University of Madrid, University of Valencia, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and Seoul National University also contributed to this research.
Study: Elucidating the molecular structural origin of efficient emission across solid and solution phases of single benzene fluorophores (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60316-0)
END
Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions
Reaching 98% efficiency in a solid state and 94% in solution, the small fluorescent molecule's design could cut down development time and cost for future applications
2025-07-01
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants
2025-07-01
For a decade, scientists have believed that plants sensed temperature mainly through specialized proteins, and mainly at night when the air is cool. New research suggests that during the day, another signal takes over. Sugar, produced in sunlight, helps plants detect heat and decide when to grow.
The study, led by Meng Chen, a University of California, Riverside professor of cell biology, shows that plants rely on multiple heat-sensing systems, and that sugar plays a central and previously unrecognized role in daytime temperature response. The findings, published in Nature Communications, reshape a long-standing view of how plants ...
Personality can explain why some CEOs earn higher salaries
2025-07-01
The lucrative pay for American CEOs often makes headlines. In 1965, CEO compensation was 22 times higher than the pay of an average worker. In recent years, CEOs have been paid 344 times more than the people who work for them.
The personality of a CEO is one factor driving the increase in executive compensation, according to a new study from a team of researchers that includes Sam M. Walton College of Business strategic management professor Jason Ridge.
Leaders with a Machiavellian personality, someone who is self-interested, unemotional and manipulative, earn more than $1.5 million a year in additional pay. While ...
This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI
2025-07-01
While the current generation of artificial intelligence chatbots still flub basic facts, the systems answer with such confidence that they’re often more persuasive than humans.
Adults, even those such as lawyers with deep domain knowledge, still regularly fall for this. But spotting errors in text is especially difficult for children, since they often don’t have the contextual knowledge to sniff out falsehoods.
University of Washington researchers developed the game AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems still typically and blatantly ...
Study suggests remembrances of dead played role in rise of architecture in Andean region
2025-07-01
By Greg Watry, UC Davis
Archaeologists have long thought that monumental architecture — large, human-built structures that emphasize visibility — were products of societies with power structures, including social hierarchy, inequality and controlled labor forces. But this notion is being questioned as researchers uncover evidence that hunter-gatherer groups also built such structures.
In new research published June 24 in the journal Antiquity, University of California researchers report evidence of monumental structures built by hunter-gatherer groups at Kaillachuro, a collection of burial mounds located in the Titicaca Basin of the ...
Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections
2025-07-01
The strength of certain neural connections can predict how well someone can learn math, and mild electrically stimulating these networks can boost learning, according to a study published on July 1st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Roi Cohen Kadosh from University of Surrey, United Kingdom, and colleagues.
When it comes to cognitive skills like reading and math, early advantages tend to compound over time. Mathematical abilities, however, seem to plateau from childhood to adulthood, raising the possibility that innate brain characteristics ...
Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds
2025-07-01
Putting the brakes on an enzyme might rescue neurons that are dying due to a type of Parkinson’s disease that’s caused by a single genetic mutation, according to a new Stanford Medicine-led study conducted in mice.
The genetic mutation causes an enzyme called leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, or LRRK2, to be overactive. Too much LRRK2 enzyme activity changes the structure of brain cells in a way that disrupts crucial communication between neurons that make the neurotransmitter dopamine and cells in the striatum, ...
Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning
2025-07-01
Safe, painless, and non-invasive brain stimulation could help people who are at risk of falling behind in maths, according to a new study led by the University of Surrey.
The study, published in PLoS Biology, found that applying safe electrical currents to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) – a region involved in learning and memory, focus, and problem-solving – helped people aged 18 to 30 solve maths problems more efficiently.
Seventy-two healthy adults took part in a five-day maths training programme – 24 received a form of brain stimulation known as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) to the dlPFC, ...
UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning
2025-07-01
Under embargo until July 1, 2025 at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT)
Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning
Safe, painless, and non-invasive brain stimulation could help people who are at risk of falling behind in maths, according to a new study led by the University of Surrey.
The study, published in PLoS Biology, found that applying safe electrical currents to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) – a region involved in learning and memory, focus, and problem-solving – helped people aged 18 to ...
Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance
2025-07-01
Scientists have studied a new target for antibiotics in the greatest detail yet – in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
The ‘molecular machine’ flagellum is essential for bacteria to cause infection, allowing bacteria to ‘swim’ around the bloodstream until finding something to infect. But it could also be a target for antibiotics.
Impairing the flagellum would deliver a critical, but not fatal, blow to bacteria. This is a new approach and contrasts to traditional antibiotics, which are designed to kill all bacteria ...
Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting
2025-07-01
In recent years, deep learning methods have been increasingly applied in atmospheric and oceanic forecasting, showing superior forecast skills. Unlike time-stepping numerical models, deep learning forecasting models (DLMs) typically adopt a “multi-time-slice input” structure. This structure breaks the deterministic causality in the time dimension that exists in the numerical models. In this case, the forecast errors in DLMs should be attributed to all input slices, rather than any single one. This fundamental difference limits the applicability of the classical conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP) method, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Is this what 2,500-year-old honey looks like?
Economic evaluation of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 testing in long-term care settings
Announcing Deep Origin as a sponsor of ARDD 2025
Cancer cells ‘power up’ when literally pressed to the limit
Huge hidden flood bursts through the Greenland ice sheet surface
The brain shapes what we feel in real time
New study confirms post-pandemic surge in gut-brain disorders
Through the shot glass, and what can be found in liverworts
Stepping for digital rewards
Developing next-generation analytical technique for gene and cell doping and ensuring ethics and fairness in sports
Debunking a life-threatening myth: "Tongue swallowing prevention" maneuvers delay CPR and might contribute to brain injury or death for collapsed athletes
Female pilots perform better under pressure, study finds
Hydroquinone-buffered covalent organic frameworks for long-term photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production
From coal to chemicals: Breakthrough syngas catalysis powers green industrial future
AI detects the stiffness of cancer cell exosomes: DGIST develops deep learning-based lung cancer diagnostic technology
Positive ethnic identity fosters STEM career aspirations
Wildlife show wide range of responses to human presence in U.S. national parks
Great Tits show early signs of splitting up: Oxford researchers uncover social clues to bird 'divorce'
From the lab to the hand: nanodevice brings personalized genomics closer to reality
Women politicians receive more identity-based attacks on social media than men, study finds
Idaho National Laboratory accelerates nuclear energy projects with Amazon Web Services cloud and AI technologies
Kavraki elected to European Academy of Sciences
UK teens who currently vape as likely to start smoking as their peers in the 1970s
Higher ultra processed food intake linked to increased lung cancer risk
Exercise rehab lessens severity, frequency + recurrence of irregular heart rhythm (AF)
Deep heat beneath the United States traced to ancient rift with Greenland
Animals in national parks remained wary of human footprint during 2020 COVID shutdown
Stevens INI receives prestigious contract to advance women’s brain health
Fulbright funds OU professor’s biodiversity research
Antiviral treatment fails to slow early-stage Alzheimer’s
[Press-News.org] Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutionsReaching 98% efficiency in a solid state and 94% in solution, the small fluorescent molecule's design could cut down development time and cost for future applications