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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L90521/01
Title: ROTAXANE-ENCAPSULATED DYES
Principal Investigator: Anderson, Professor HL
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
BASF
Department: Oxford Chemistry
Organisation: University of Oxford
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 09 March 1998 Ends: 08 March 2001 Value (£): 171,090
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Chemical Synthetic Methodology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Synthetic dyes enrich many areas of everyday life. They are used as colorants (textile dyes and printing inks), and in photography, opto-electronics (laser dyes, optical data storage, display technology), cell biology (molecular probes) and medicine (photodynamic therapy). This project will develop a new general way of controlling the solubility, stability, substrate-affinity, aggregation and fluorescence-efficiency of dyes. Our approach is to encapsulate the dye in a controlled microenvironment, shielding it from the outside world. This will improve the performance of the dye for many applications.Encapsulation will be achieved by trapping the dye inside a macrocycle, to form a rotaxane. We will focus on azo dyes and cyanine-type dyes, encapsulated in cyclodextrins and water-soluble cyclophanes. The synthesis will be done in water, using the hydrophobic effect to hold the components in the right orientation for rotaxane formation. Rotaxanes will also be prepared by forcing macrocycles to slip over dumbbell-shaped dyes using high temperature and pressure.The interaction of rotaxane-encapsulated azo dyes with cellulose fibres will be explored with BASF at Manchester. The fluorescence efficiency and stability of encapsulated dyes will be tested to explore their potential as laser dyes and electroluminescent materials.
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Organisation Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk