These pyrrole and oligopyrrole products fluoresce under a 365 nm ultraviolet lamp as they swirl in their vials. Postdoc Yogesh Kumar Maurya and PhD student Liliia Moshniaha in the Stępień Lab at the University of Wrocław synthesized these products using a series of organic transformation reactions. Each colorful product shown may have its own structure and could possess unique absorption, emission, and quantum-yield properties that researchers can tailor for various applications. The products are of interest as functional chromophores, charge-storage materials, organic materials for energy and electron transfer, and photodynamic therapy.
Graduate student Joanna Hager and postdoc Yogesh Kumar Maurya were inspired by the bright red fluorescence of a compound they were working on in Marcin Stępień’s lab at the University of Wrocław. The group explores the properties and potential uses of novel, complex aromatic systems; in this case, a π-extended pyrrole. The pyrrole in a filter funnel under bluish light reminded them of a flower pistil floating in water, so they arranged this image with other compounds from the lab.
This picture demonstrates green-glow fluorescence from a pyrrole-based chromophore, resembling wildfire on an exoplanet. Daniel Matuszczyk, a graduate student in the Stępień research group at the University of Wrocław, was working on π-extended chromophores from the azacoronene family, an emerging class of nanographene analogues. During purification by column chromatography, one fraction showed beautiful emission, even in the solid state, under UV light.
This picture shows ripple patterns in a solution of fluorescent compounds in a Petri dish. The orange and yellow fluorescent compounds seem to fade as the ripples move away from the center. Yogesh and Liliia made a Fluorescence Friday image after noticing a slow water drop falling into the colored solution.
