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Photon Harvesting in Sunscreen‐Based Functional Nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Mandal Sadananda,
Bera Rajesh,
Das Somnath,
Nayak Sandip K.,
Pramanik Amitava,
Patra Amitava
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201500780
Subject(s) - photochemistry , nanoparticle , molecule , enol , materials science , porphyrin , chemistry , ultraviolet light , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , catalysis
Abstract The ultraviolet light component in the solar spectrum is known to cause several harmful effects, such as allergy, skin ageing, and skin cancer. Thus, current research attention has been paid to the design and fundamental understanding of sunscreen‐based materials. One of the most abundantly used sunscreen molecules is Avobenzone (AB), which exhibits two tautomers. Here, we highlight the preparation of spherically shaped nanoparticles from the sunscreen molecule AB as well as from sunscreen‐molecule‐encapsulated polymer nanoparticles in aqueous media and study their fundamental photophysical properties by steady‐state and time‐resolved spectroscopy. Steady‐state studies confirm that the AB molecule is in the keto and enol forms in tetrahydrofuran, whereas the enol form is stable in the case of both AB nanoparticles and AB‐encapsulated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanoparticles. Thus, the keto–enol transformation of AB molecules is restricted to a nanoenvironment. An enhancement of photostability in both the nanoparticle and PMMA‐encapsulated forms under UV light irradiation is observed. The efficient excited energy transfer (60 %) from AB to porphyrin molecules opens up further prospects in potential applications as light‐harvesting systems.