I am working on the synthesis and applications of porous luminescent materials. Porosity allows the inclusion of guest molecules, which could be any reactive system or simply a fluorescent molecule, into the nano spaces within the host molecular architectures. Suitably chosen guests can allow effective energy transfer between fluorescent guest molecules and the host, and thus allow various routes for light harvesting. One such very desirable form of light harvesting is the photon up-conversion. Conventional methods of photon up-conversion such as two/multi-photon absorption, second harmonic/sum frequency generation, require huge intensities of the incident radiation, possible only with very powerful laser sources. A recently explored method that relies on the triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) process, can overcome the limitations faced with conventional up-conversion techniques. I am trying to prepare materials that may have capability to up-convert the energy of the non-coherent light having intensity comparable with solar irradiation. Materials exhibiting TTA-based up-conversion systems find application in both materials as well as biological systems.
