White-emitting Protein-Metal Nanocluster Phosphors for Highly Performing Biohybrid Light-Emitting Diodes
This work presents an engineered protein scaffold to synthesize and stabilize fluorescent gold nanoclusters for their use in bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes, as color down-converting filters, showing an efficient white emission and stabilities over 800 hours. Artwork by M. Eugenio Vazquez @ChemBioUSC
Aires A, Fernandez-Luna V, Fernandez-Cestau J, Costa RD, Cortajarena AL.
Nano Lett 2020 Apr; 20: 2710.
This work presents a simple in situ synthesis and stabilization of fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with different sizes using engineered protein scaffolds in water. The protein-AuNC hybrids show a dual emission (450 and 700 nm) with a record photoluminescence quantum yield of 20%. These features impelled us to apply them to biohybrid light-emitting diodes as color down-converting filters or biophosphors. Efficient white emission (x/y CIE color coordinates of 0.31/0.29) and stabilities of more than 800 h were achieved. This represents a 2 orders of magnitude enhancement compared to the prior art. Besides the outstanding performance, the protein scaffold also infers a unique anisotropic emission character that is considered as a proof-of-concept of high interest for single-point lighting and display.
PubMed: 32155079. Doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00324.>
