BIO-COL-DNA

This project is focused on the recovery and capitalization of some important biomaterials such as: collagen and DNA from marine waste, their functionalization
with various synthetic and/or natural chromophores and fluorophores, with the final goal to obtain innovative smart biomaterials for photonic application. In this way,
our ambition is to bring the research into the frontier of what is going now in one of the emerging key enable technologies – BIOPHOTONICS.
The main objective of the present project is to obtain and characterize innovative biopolymer based materials and structures for practical applications in photonics.
This general objective will be fulfilled by the following specific objectives:
• Design and obtaining innovative biopolymers functionalized with natural / synthetic chromophores / fluorophores;
• Processing, optimization and characterization of high optical quality thin films and membranes based on functionalized biopolymers with tailored optical properties.
• Development of smart biopolymer based materials for applications in nonlinear optics, such as ALL-BioLEDs.
All these objectives are feasible based on previous expertise of both postdoc and mentor and represent reasonable tools to fulfil the project scope.
The proposed project will provide advanced knowledge on functionalization of supramolecular structure of some biopolymers like DNA and collagen for the
enhancement of the nonlinear optical response and light emission properties, as an important tool for a broad multidisciplinary basic research, with a high potential in
development of enhanced and/or improved photonic and electronic functionalities conferredto these materials. The proposed elaboration and use of biopolymer based
materials incorporating some natural and/or synthetic optically active molecules will open new opportunities for developing advanced materials with applications in
photonics, and more particularly, in nonlinear optics.