Researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a method for embedding light-emitting nanoparticles into glass without losing any of their unique properties—a step toward "smart glass" applications, such as 3D display screens and remote radiation sensors. The new hybrid glass successfully combines the properties of luminescent nanoparticles with the well-known aspects of glass, such as transparency and the ability to be processed into various shapes, including very fine optical fibers.

The technology is a step toward "smart glass" applications, such as 3D display screens and remote radiation sensors. Image credit: Pixabay.To date, the method used to integrate such luminescent nanoparticles, known as "upconversion nanoparticles," into glass has relied on the in-situ growth of the nanoparticles within the glass.

“We’ve seen remarkable progress in this area, but the control over the nanoparticles and the glass compositions has been limited, restricting the development of many proposed applications,” says project leader Heike Ebendorff-Heideprem, deputy director of the University of Adelaide School of Physical Sciences' Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS).

The new direct-doping method involves synthesizing the nanoparticles and glass separately and then combining them under the right conditions to keep the nanoparticles intact and well dispersed throughout the glass. The nanoparticles remain functional, while the glass transparency remains very close to its original quality.

“Integrating these nanoparticles into glass, which is usually inert, opens up exciting possibilities for new hybrid materials and devices that can take advantage of the properties of nanoparticles in ways we haven’t been able to do before," says Dr. Tim Zhao, a researcher at IPAS.

As an example, Zhao notes that neuroscientists currently use dye injected into the brain and lasers to guide a glass pipette to the site they are interested in examining. If fluorescent nanoparticles were embedded in the glass pipettes, the luminescence of the hybrid glass could act as a torch to guide the pipette directly to the individual neurons of interest.

Although the researchers' method was developed with upconversion nanoparticles, they believe their direct-doping approach can be applied to other nanoparticles with interesting photonic, electronic and magnetic properties. There could be many applications, the researchers say, depending on the properties of the nanoparticle.

“If we infuse glass with a nanoparticle that is sensitive to radiation and then draw that hybrid glass into a fiber, we could have a remote sensor suitable for nuclear facilities,” Zhao says.