Fluorescence responses can be analysed using digital photography instead of spectroscopy, say scientists in Germany. The technology could eventually be integrated into smart phones.
Uwe Bunz and his colleagues from the University of Heidelberg used digital photography to study the optical changes occurring when different pyridine-substituted cruciform (cross-conjugated) fluorophores (XF) were subjected to protonation. They protonated the nitrogen on the pyridine and observed the colour changes of the XFs in the presence of carboxylic acids.
Instrument set-up for taking photographs of emission colour
The team extracted data from the photographs by transforming the red, green and blue (RGB) values into numerical values, a process that helps define the colour and removes brightness information. ‘The method is quick and inexpensive, and large data quantities can be stored and acquired in seconds,’ says Bunz.
See the Chemistry World article in full or read the paper from Chemical Science:
Digital photography for the analysis of fluorescence responses
Thimon Schwaebel , Oliver Trapp and Uwe H. F. Bunz
Chem. Sci., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2SC21412A
