In May this year, we launched the project “Experimental and theoretical studies of near-infrared-emitting and chiral carbon dot luminophores” supported by the Global Experts programme of the Moravian-Silesian Region. We bring you an interview with Andrey Rogach, an excellent scientist who will bring the know-how of his research group to Ostrava's IT4Innovations.
Andrey Rogach is a world-renowned expert in light-emitting nanomaterials. He studied chemistry at the Belarusian State University (Ph.D. in 1995), then worked in Germany at the University of Hamburg (1995-2002) and the University of Munich (2002-2009), and also in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin. He completed his habilitation in Experimental Physics at the University of Munich and has been at the City University of Hong Kong since 2009. He is the author of more than 500 scientific publications, with an h-index of 137. He is also a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea.
How long have you been involved in the research of luminophores?
I have been researching luminophores since the beginning of the 90s, so about 30 years. In doing this, we were always working on nanomaterials. Some of those, which emit light, are denoted as “luminophores”. In the project “Experimental and theoretical studies of near-infrared-emitting and chiral carbon dot luminophores,” we will study so-called “carbon dots”, which is just another name for carbon nanoparticles that can emit light. I started working on this topic back in 2012 when I was in Hong Kong. In 2013, I met Michal Otyepka from VŠB-TUO, who has now offered me to participate in the Global Experts project, which I happily accepted. We already published more than a dozen papers on these materials, some of which are extremely highly cited.
Can you explain why you are interested in luminophores and carbon dots and why they are your research interest?
Again, luminophores represent a wide range of materials that can emit light. Your mobile phone is an excellent example of why people need light-emitting materials. You can see the display and the colors because it emits light. That's why people develop these materials, e.g., for cell phones, computer screens, and large displays.
Carbon dots are interesting because they are very safe and environmentally friendly, whereas plenty of other materials could contain toxic chemical elements, even though they have good light-emitting properties. Carbon dots, on the other hand, are very safe. Carbon is everywhere, and carbon dots are easy to produce.
Can you tell us how carbon dots are produced?
The easiest way to make carbon dots is to take a piece of paper and light it on fire; it will be burnt and turn into black, which is carbon. Then when you put it in water and shake it, you get small particles, carbon dots. Of course, doing these steps would be a simplification of a real procedure; carbon dots are usually produced in laboratories by chemical reactions. You heat up some precursors containing carbon and nitrogen atoms; the process is called carbonisation, and you obtain tiny nanoparticles dispersed in some solvent, such as water, for example; they can emit light in different colors. So one of the advantages is that carbon dots are indeed very easy and cheap to make. We can make carbon dots from many different sources/precursors.
Even from humans?
Yes, from hair, for example. Burn your hair, and you will get carbon dots.
Can you tell us more about your scientific travels around the world? You have spent many years at universities in Germany and Hong Kong, and now you are joining us here in Czechia. In your opinion, is it important for scientists to travel, experience different research Teams, areas, cultures, and share knowledge?
It is part of the fun, with scientists interacting with each other and experiencing different places. It is indeed a very exciting part of our job. We attend conferences, meet interesting people, and establish collaborations. For example, I am an experimentalist (chemist and physicist), and Michal Otyepka is a computational chemist/physicist. We need each other as our research is highly complementary. And thanks to the Global Experts Programme, we can now continue to work together and strengthen the carbon dot luminophores research transnationally. The team here in the region is very strong regarding, e.g., world-class computational research, so cooperating will be very beneficial.
What do you look forward to the most within the project you will work on at VSB-TUO?
Carbon dots have been studied intensively for almost 20 years by different groups all over the world. We will focus on one specific direction related to these materials; we want them to emit light in the near-infrared. When we talk about light, people mostly imagine so-called visible light; this is how we see each other. I now see a black cardigan or, e.g., a green lanyard, but we cannot see infrared light with our eyes. But near-infrared light can penetrate our skin and be used in biological applications to study something inside our bodies. Carbon dots emitting near-infrared light can be used as so-called labels that can go inside our body and be used to examine novel drugs, for example, so that we know where precisely the medication will go in our body, such as, e.g., cancer place. Near-infrared emitting luminophores have many important implications for real-life applications.
Well, thank you for the interview, and welcome to IT4Innovations!
I am always glad to return to Europe. I already have more than 10 years of experience working and publishing with colleagues from the Czech Republic, so I look forward to working with scientists from VŠB-TUO and contributing to the transformation of the Moravskoslezský region.
Author of the illustration: Martin Pykal