In the world of science, sometimes the journey from the laboratory to real-world applications is akin to baking cookies - following a recipe, mixing ingredients, and waiting for the magic to happen. Professor Eva Hemmer and her team have been cooking up something extraordinary in her chemistry lab: ink formulations based on lanthanide-doped nanoparticles with potential for use in novel electronic and optical devices, sensors, and security tags.
To illustrate her successful research partnership with the applied research center Optech, funded through a Mitacs Accelerate grant, Professor Hemmer presented the “Cookie Theory” as an analogy to illustrate their collaborative work. Just as a baker selects ingredients for cookies, scientists meticulously choose different lanthanides based on their emission colours, incorporating them into the "cookie dough" – the host material for these nanoparticles.
Scientists have long sought to create minuscule electronic and optical devices, sensors, and security tags, necessitating a method to imprint subtle patterns on materials, such as optical fibers and microchips. They explore specialized inks that can glow in different colours and function as sensors for parameters such as pressure and temperature. Lanthanides, a group of chemical elements often overlooked, can meet these requirements.
Prof. Hemmer and her team are designing novel luminescent lanthanide-doped nanoparticles as imaging probes and for use as sensors. To bring these materials closer to real-life applications, they recently developed an ink formulation, using lanthanide-doped nanoparticles, water, and a biopolymer. With the perfect recipe formulated, the chemists partnered with Optech, a non-profit organization specializing in optics/photonics, to bring their innovation to the next stage.
The partnership was made possible thanks to Mitacs Accelerate funding, which allowed two postdoctoral fellows, Dr. Emilie Rodrigues and Dr. Christian Homann, to join the project. Optech utilized its industry-led printing technologies to print various types of nanoparticle patterns. The Hemmer lab then tested these for their thermal sensing capabilities. Together, they are exploring simple ink formulations and commercial printing technologies, aiming for a broader range of real-world applications of lanthanide-based nanomaterials.
Since lanthanide-based nanocarrier research for highly specific applications, such as biomedicine, is still in its infancy, it can be challenging to persuade industry partners to invest. This is why the partnership with Optech, funded by Mitacs, is so significant to Prof. Hemmer’s research. “This is a crucial step to open new opportunities,” she expressed enthusiastically, reflecting on the unforeseen potential at the project's outset. Their lanthanide-based inks have been finalized and the work is published in the journal Optical Materials: X.
Collaborating with Optech not only helped bridge theory and practice but also expands the horizons for future collaborations. Prof. Hemmer envisions their prototype as a catalyst for pioneering lanthanide-nanophosphor studies, aiming to unlock novel applications. Alongside academic endeavours, Prof. Hemmer and her students have travelled across North America to attend conferences and showcase the potential of their research materials. She looks forward to attracting more industrial partners to recognize the potential of this technology and invest in its development, making lanthanide-based products more accessible in our daily lives. Just like baking cookies, this collaborative effort promises to bring sweetness and innovation to the world.
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