Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 22: Bioimaging

BP 22.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 17:30–17:45, H46

Nanomaterials: A Versatile Sensitizer for Enhanced Singlet Molecular Oxygen Generation — •Zahid Ullah Khan¹, Latif Ullah Khan^1,2, Hermi Felinto Brito¹, and Paolo Di Mascio¹ — ¹Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo (USP), 05508-000, São Paulo-SP, Brazil — ²Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) P.O. Box 7, Allan 19252, Jordan

Singlet molecular oxygen (1O2) plays a crucial role in various fields, including optoelectronics, photooxygenation reactions, and biomedical therapies, particularly as a major contributor to the success of photodynamic therapy (PDT). Since direct excitation of oxygen from the triplet ground state (3O2) to the singlet-excited state is spin-forbidden, thus, making the design of heterogeneous sensitizers crucial for efficient 1O2 production. For this purpose, nanomaterials, such as quantum dots (QDs) and rare earth fluoride nanoparticles (NPs), have emerged as versatile sensitizers for 1O2 generation, either individually or in combination with other inorganic or organic materials. Hence, conjoining the photophysical properties of QDs and rare earth NPs with other materials, e.g., coupling/combining with other inorganic materials, doping with the transition metal ions or lanthanide ions, and conjugation with a molecular sensitizer provide the opportunity to achieve high-efficiency quantum yields of 1O2 which is not possible with either component separately. Hence, the current work focuses the development of semiconductor QDs and rare earth-based nanosensitizer for efficient production of 1O2.

Keywords: Quantum dots; Lanthanide nanomaterials; Singlet oxygen generation; Nanosensitizer; Photodynamic therapy