{"id":830,"date":"2024-03-08T10:40:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T17:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/qdna\/?p=830"},"modified":"2026-10-09T12:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:57:33","slug":"engineering-aggregation-of-hydrophilic-dyes-to-enable-the-application-of-next-generation-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/qdna\/2024\/03\/08\/engineering-aggregation-of-hydrophilic-dyes-to-enable-the-application-of-next-generation-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Aggregation of Hydrophilic Dyes to Enable the Application of Next-Generation Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Article by Postdoctoral research fellow Gissela Pascual and Research Program Manager Mandeep <\/em>Sharma.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Graphic
Left: Squaraine (SQ) dye structures, and circles depict the point of modification to obtain hydrophilic SQs. Right: Relationship between exciton delocalization (Jm,n) of dimers (adjacent and transverse) templated by DNA-HJ and dye hydrophilicity (LogP).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exciton delocalization is the collective sharing of electronic excitation energy of dyes in an aggregate. Customization of squaraine dyes with hydrophilic imparting substituents enables the tunability of exciton delocalization that can be leveraged in impactful applications such as optical information processing and light harvesting<\/p>\n

What\u00a0did\u00a0the\u00a0Scientists\/ Engineers\u00a0Discover?<\/h2>\n

Researchers at Boise State University have successfully formed aggregates of hydrophilic dyes that exhibit strong exciton delocalization. These aggregates, excited by light, share a delocalized exciton across the dyes. This shows that the quasiparticle exciton made up of bound electron and hole pairs can exist between the participant dyes. Exciton delocalization is a high-efficiency energy transfer process useful for several applications to develop next-generation technologies such as room-temperature quantum computing, artificial light-harvesting systems, and organic optoelectronics.<\/p>\n

However, the propensity of dyes to form aggregates is limited by their hydrophilic property which is the capacity of dyes to dissolve in water. Less hydrophilic dyes (or hydrophobic dyes) have shown a higher propensity to form aggregates exhibiting strong exciton delocalization driven by hydrophobic interaction. Nevertheless, forming hydrophilic dye aggregates is challenging due to the increased inter-dye distance when dyes dissolve in water.<\/p>\n

To overcome this challenge, Dr. Gissela Pascual and colleagues from the Quantum DNA Research Group<\/a> at the Micron School for Materials Science and Engineering, used a clever method. They attached photostable hydrophilic squaraine (SQ) dyes to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that can be chemically modified and exhibit unique spectral properties. By using four-arm DNA Holliday junction structures (DNA HJ), composed of two DNA strands labeled with SQ and two without dye, researchers brought these dyes close enough to form aggregates and exhibit strong exciton delocalization. Interestingly, they found that increasing hydrophilicity weakened the exciton delocalization calculated using an in-house developed modeling tool. They also discovered that some dyes formed aggregates with subpopulations that exhibited differentiated exciton delocalization.<\/p>\n

This research gives us new insights into how to make hydrophilic dye aggregates with strong exciton delocalization. This finding opens exciting possibilities for using these hydrophilic dye aggregates in quantum information systems.<\/p>\n

Impact<\/h2>\n

Researchers led by Pascual found that certain hydrophilic SQ dyes templated by DNA-HJ can share energy in a process called coherent exciton delocalization. This energy sharing can help bridge the gap between existing technology and the development of molecular quantum materials.<\/p>\n

Study Investigators<\/h2>\n