Why is that good? It has the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics, give the military and law enforcement agencies a 'secret' source of illumination - because the near-infrared range can only be seen with the aid of night vision devices - and maybe even provide a foundation for solar cells that aren't complete rubbish.
The starting point is the trivalent chromium ion, a well-known emitter of near-infrared light. When exposed to light, its electrons at ground state quickly move to a higher energy state. As the electrons return to the ground state, energy is released as near-infrared light. The period of light emission is generally short, typically on the order of a few milliseconds. The innovation uses a matrix of zinc and gallogermanate to host the trivalent chromium ions, is that its chemical structure creates a labyrinth of "traps" that capture excitation energy and store it for an extended period. As the stored energy is thermally released back to the chromium ions at room temperature, the compound persistently emits near-infrared light over period of up to two weeks.
Lead author Zhengwei Pan, University of Georgia associate professor of physics and engineering, said, "When you bring the material anywhere outside of a building, one minute of exposure to light can create a 360-hour release of near-infrared light. It can be activated by indoor fluorescent lighting as well, and it has many possible applications."
The material can be fabricated into nanoparticles that bind to cancer cells, for example, and doctors could visualize the location of small metastases that otherwise might go undetected. For military and law enforcement use, the material can be fashioned into ceramic discs that serve as a source of illumination that only those wearing night vision goggles can see. Similarly, the material can be turned into a powder and mixed into a paint whose luminescence is only visible to a select few.
In a process that Pan likens to perfecting a recipe, he and postdoctoral researcher Feng Liu and doctoral student Yi-Ying Lu spent three years developing the material. Initial versions emitted light for minutes, but through modifications to the chemical ingredients and the preparation—just the right amounts of sintering temperature and time—they were able to increase the afterglow from minutes to days and, ultimately, weeks.
"Even now, we don't think we've found the best compound," Pan said. "We will continuously tune the parameters so that we may find a much better one."
The researchers spent an additional year testing the material—indoors and out, as well as on sunny days, cloudy days and rainy days—to prove its versatility. They placed it in freshwater, saltwater and even a corrosive bleach solution for three months and found no decrease in performance.
In addition to exploring biomedical applications, Pan's team aims to use it to collect, store and convert solar energy. "This material has an extraordinary ability to capture and store energy," Pan said, "so this means that it is a good candidate for making solar cells significantly more efficient."
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