Natural extracts: potential chromophores for multiple applications (Conference Presentation)

In the last decade an important interest for green materials is observed. This interest is due either to the pollution caused by the organic plastic materials on one hand and to the interest for using natural products with new properties. Chromophores (dyes) are used in almost all fields of our life and activity: food, construction, textiles, automotives, photonics, etc. The presently developed optoelectronic materials exploit molecules with a large pi electron conjugation, which provides them an enhanced nonlinear optical response. This kind of molecules can be found also in many natural products. Their color is provided by the absorption of pi electrons. We have studied several types of extracts we obtained from spices made of molecules with a large pi electron conjugation in view of their application in photonics The extracts were then used to dope a well known biopolymer: DNA, giving in this way natural photoresponsive complexes. The obtained materials were processed into good optical quality thin films by spin coating technique, which we characterized for their spectroscopic, room temperature and high intensity laser pulses resistance. An enhanced fluorescence, low degradation kinetics and high optical damage thresholds were observed. All results obtained results obtained in this study will be presented and discussed. They are promising and suggest that in the near future we will be able to obtain functional, fully green materials for application in photonics. Acknowledgement This work was supported by a grant of Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0674, within PNCDI III.