#bodipy

Glow-in-the-dark dyes may soon power cars

BTF Researchers have identified a glow-in-the-dark fluorescent dye which may be an ideal material for stockpiling energy in rechargeable, liquid-based batteries that could one day power cars and homes. The dye called BODIPY – or boron-dipyrromethene – shines brightly in the dark under a black light. According researchers from University at Buffalo (UB) in the US, the dye has unusual chemical…

Glow-in-the-dark Dye Could Fuel Liquid-based Batteries

Could a glow-in-the-dark dye be the next advancement in energy storage technology?

Scientists at the University at Buffalo think so.

They have identified a fluorescent dye called BODIPY as an ideal material for stockpiling energy in rechargeable, liquid-based batteries that could one day power cars and homes.

BODIPY — short for boron-dipyrromethene — shines brightly in the dark under a black…

This is BODIPY (pronounced bo-dippy), the common name for boron-dipyrromethene, a fluorescent dye molecule with a very large extinction coefficient (on the order of  ϵ = 90000 M-1 cm-1) based upon a strongly allowed 1π→π* transition.[1]  Its optical response is very highly dependent on its environment, so it can be used to tag biological molecules[2] and probe pH.  

[1] Karolin et al.  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1994, 116(17), 7801–7806