Transparent Wood Biocomposite of Well-Dispersed Dye Content for Fluorescence and Lasing Applications

ACS Appl Opt Mater. 2023 May 15;1(5):1043-1051. doi: 10.1021/acsaom.3c00100. eCollection 2023 May 26.

Abstract

Aggregation-induced quenching often restricts emissive performance of optically active solid materials with embedded fluorescent dyes. Delignified and nanoporous wood readily adsorbs organic dyes and is investigated as a host material for rhodamine 6G (R6G). High concentration of R6G (>35 mM) is achieved in delignified wood without any ground-state dye aggregation. To evaluate emissive performance, a solid-state random dye laser is prepared using the dye-doped wood substrates. The performance in terms of lasing threshold and efficiency was improved with increased dye content due to the ability of delignified wood to disperse R6G.