Fluorescent electrospun nanofibers embedding dye-loaded zeolite crystals

The organization of dye-loaded zeolite crystals into nanometric polymer fibers obtained by an electrospinning technique, is reported. Zeolites of approximately 600-800 nm in diameter and 1 μm in length are found to be well embedded into polymer fibers. The zeolite crystals are embedded into the nanowires with their axis well aligned along the wire axis, providing polarized emission that reflects the specific dye orientation within the parallel nanochannels of the zeolites. Dye-loaded zeolites, integrated into nanowires, form very bright nanometric light sources emitting polarized light at visible wavelengths. The waveguide properties of composite electro-spun fibers with subwavelength dimensions can be used for the fabrication of integrated nanoscale light-emitting devices, which present good prospects in the optoelectroniclectronic and photonic nanodevices.