Visible Light Conversion Open Doors For Photodynamic Therapy

Visible Light Conversion Open Doors For Photodynamic Therapy

A group of researchers from the Columbia University and Harvard have collaboratively developed a chemical method in order to translate visible light into infrared energy and further permit the harmless radiation to pierce living tissue and other resources with no damage rooted by high-intensity light exposure. The study published in Nature has is quite knowledgeable as a lineup of complex chemical conversions requiring high-energy, noninvasive visible light, and infrared light supply. According to Tomislav Rovis from Columbia, its potential can be well understood in the applications consisting of barriers coming in the way of matter control.

The team had carried out various experiments using the new compound in small quantities that can activate the light so as to help bring about electron transfer between molecules which would or else react slowly or no. The novel approach named triplet fusion upconversion deals with a series of processes that primarily fuse two infrared photons into a solitary visible light photon. Only the visible light is captured with the rest of the spectrum wasted by the majority of the technologies. The new approach can capture low-energy infrared light followed by its conversion into visible light which can later be absorbed by the solar panels. The visible light is generally reflected from the surface while the infrared light has a longer wavelength that helps it penetrate dense materials. The technology helps fine-tune the infrared light so as to possibly help it penetrate various barriers like tissue, paper, plastic molds, and blood.

The scientists have long been trying to help visible light penetrate the skin and blood without any impact on the nearby healthy tissues or internal organs. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) employs a unique drug named photosensitizer that in the presence of light forms reactive oxygen to kill the growth of cancer cells. The PDT is limited to localized or surface cancers treatments but this new technology can aid it in accessing the earlier inaccessible regions. Instead of using a drug poisoning the entire body, the nontoxic drug combined with infrared light can help target the cancerous growth site and kill those cells. This technology can help treat other conditions, drug development, processing microelectronic components, and more. In the hybrid photon upconversion platform, the University of California Zhiyuan Huang and Ming Lee Tang researchers used semiconductor nanocrystals for charge and energy transfer in various applications using their unique electronic and optical properties for instigating triplet energy transfer to organic molecules, which is basic in the triplet-fusion-supported photon upconversion. This method can help transfer energy amid inorganic–organic interface.

John Fuller


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