"Fluorescent dyes absorb light at one wavelength and emit it at another. Such materials are widely used in consumer and commercial products in markets as diverse as lighting and displays, solar power generation, and in biochemistry and medical applications. A typical fluorescent dye will absorb short wavelength light such as ultraviolet (UV) and emit longer wavelength light, for instance in the visible region. The change in the wavelength between the absorbed and emitted light is known as the _Stokes Shift_. In general, in order to have a large Stokes Shift, dyes are based on molecules containing heavy metals, which are potential environmentally damaging and toxic. Many such materials are also quite sensitive to heat and light and degrade easily.

ChromaTwist Ltd, is a spin-out company from the University of Birmingham. We have developed a new class of fluorescent materials. These compounds do not contain metals, and have very high levels of thermal and photo-stability compared to current products, allowing them to be used in a wide variety of applications.

Despite the lack of metal in the molecule we are able to produce a very large and very flexible Stokes shift -- we can tune the output colour to cover the whole of the rainbow from blue to red. This together with the high stability makes these materials ideal for use in the _security inks_ market, where a long lifespan and a wide array of colours is ideal. Even more importantly the ability to process the materials at high temperatures allows us to provide solutions for polymer-based printing, such as the new plastic money.

The flexibility of the molecules also allows us to attach the dye to biological and medical probe molecules such as antigens and biomarkers. This combined with the lack of metals in the material, the high photostability, and the ability to tune both the exciting wavelength and the emitted light, offers much potential in the _biological imaging_ market

This InnovateUK project will help ChromaTwist to develop these compounds into commercial products. The funding will be used to scale-up the materials for beta-testing at potential customers, and then allow tailoring of the materials to meet customer specifications via their feedback."