Biopolymer Thin Films for Optoelectronics Applications

Nowadays one observes a growing interest in studying and application of "green materials'' - biomaterials. For an appropriate use of them in practical devices a good knowledge and understanding of their properties are necessary. This paper presents some results obtained for two, the most abundant on the Earth, biopolymers which are DNA and collagen. In order to make these biopolymers useful they have to be functionalized with active molecules, bringing them a researched property. The biopolymers were doped with Rhodamine 590 and Disperse Red 1. The contact angle measurements are also presented and discussed. The present studies show that the properties of these materials depend on the dyes used to render them optically responsive in visible range and on the biopolymer as well. They show that interaction with substrate is modified by the added dye, as expected. We have measured also the optical damage threshold of studied biopolymers at 1,064 nm and we found that it is about one order of magnitude higher for the studied biopolymers as compared with the synthetic ones.