Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Heriot-Watt University
Molecular design and synthesis of N-arylsulfonated coumarin fluorescent dyes and their application to textiles
The performance characteristics of currently-available fluorescent dyes are often unsatisfactory for applications which demand high stability. This paper reports the synthesis of a series of new coumarin-based fluorescent dyes, designed on the basis of an extensive set of computer-aided molecular modelling calculations, and aimed at improved performance by incorporating molecular features in a particular geometrical orientation that provide UV-absorbing properties. These dyes give striking greenish-yellow fluorescent fabrics with generally improved performance and are of interest for functional applications, e.g., colour flat-screen displays and solid-state lasers, while also offering design potential for technically-demanding high visual-impact textile applications.