Same New Molecule Applies to Dyes, Lasers, Biological Treatments

It´s easy to imagine chemists and molecular engineers focusing their research on making molecules that are highly efficient at performing a specific, targeted task. It´s more surprising to find a new class of molecule that has applicability in such diverse fields as paints, dyes, lasers, optics, biological tagging, genetic marking, metal tagging, and pharmaceuticals.

Researchers at Rockefeller University have patented the preparation, composition, and uses of just such a substance: imidazolium cations exhibit biological activity, with potential applications as antifungals and antivirals. The cations are fluorescent, and can be used for biomolecular labeling, clonal markers, and combinatorial systems. The novel compounds may also have other industrial applications including dyes, pigments, non-linear optical devices, and crystals used in lasers.

Numerous applications

Imidazolium cations have fluorescent properties, and can be used as fluorescent dyes in the range of blue, red, green, and yellow. The color of the fluorescence may be different from the absorption color. They can be used as textile dyes, but can also be incorporated into polymer matrices by extrusion or injection molding. Such polymers are suitable for creating waterborne paints and films, for making articles from polyolefins, and for printing on fiber materials such as polyester/cotton blends, where they exhibit high lightfastness.

Their fluorescence is also useful as a biological marker to discover drug binding sites and drug disposition in the body. Fluorescence is especially useful to probe proteins and DNA; the molecules can be used in a variety of tagging applications.

The cations can be used in the preparation of second-order non-linear optical polymers, which have a role in optical modulators and optical switches among other applications.

Perhaps the most interesting application rests on the compound´s biological activity. They can be used to label therapeutic agents, for example, in cancer therapy to monitor the location of a drug and its concentration. The compounds also show activity against yeast (Candida albicans) and as an antiviral against HSV (human simplex virus).

The synthesis of the imidazolium cations is highly developed at the laboratory scale, but no scale-up work has been done. Application testing is in its early stages. The technology is for license; technical assistance and research support are available.

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