Fluorescent molecules are among the important imaging reagents for biomedical research such as DNA sequencing, cell tracing, receptor labeling, drug delivery and in vivo imaging with a market size of approximately $492 million dollars. The fluorescence technology is cost effective and it also provides real-time response, and subcellular resolution. Unfortunately, blinking, quenching or degradation of fluorescence intensity has limited the sensitivity and resolution of these imaging techniques. In this project, the team proposes to use the boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) to resolve these fluorescence issues.
BNNTs can offer all the drug delivery advantages provided by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) without having non-radiative decay channels. Because of the biological compatibility and electrical insulating nature, BNNTs are the optimum fluorescent nanocarriers that can avoid quenching of fluorescence molecules. This is theoretically sounded, as the light excited electrons in the LUMO level (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) of the fluorophores are energetically far away from the valence level of BNNTs, and will not be transferred to BNNTs. In addition, BNNTs offer flexibility to be functionalized with various polymeric molecules covalently and non-covalently.
