Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Fluorescent materials have a wide range of applications across biology and medicine, optoelectronics, energy storage, and quantum technologies. Our team at Polytechnique Montréal develops and tests materials in these areas and has made a number of significant recent contributions. Recent developments from our team include record efficiency organic light-emitting diodes, the first midinfrared LEDs based on two-dimensional materials, the first Group IV midinfrared LEDs, methods for live 3D imaging of cancer cells, optical tools for rapid pathogen detection, and biodegradable electronic and energy storage components based on eumelanin. To do so, we use a wide variety of materials such as fluorescent proteins and small molecules, luminescent radicals, two-dimensional semiconductors, Group IV alloys, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, that are produced as liquids, solids, thin films, and powders, operate at various wavelengths. To advance these projects further, we request a tabletop fluorometer that will economically meet our diverse needs in a single instrument, freeing up critical equipment and efficiently using precious laboratory space. More specifically, we require the capability to measure optical properties such as fluorescence spectra, photoluminescence excitation spectra, and quantum yields in sensitive samples. Installing a robust and turnkey instrument in a shared laboratory space will expand access to fluorescence measurements to a vast network of researchers beyond the applicant team, supporting the many academic and industrial partners who develop and work with luminescent materials. In doing so, we will expand our ability to discover, measure, and optimize new materials, fabrication strategies, and more.