White-emitting protein-metal nanocluster phosphors for highly performing bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes

摘要： This work presents a simple in-situ synthesis and stabilization of fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with different sizes using engineered protein scaffolds in water. The protein-AuNC hybrids show a dual emission (450 and 700 nm) with a record photoluminescence quantum yield of 20%. These features impelled us to apply them to bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes (Bio-HLEDs) as color down-converting filters or bio-phosphors. Efficient white emission (x/y CIE color coordinates of 0.31/0.29) and stabilities of >800 h were achieved. This represents a two orders of magnitude enhancement compared to the prior art. Besides the outstanding performance, the protein scaffold also infers a unique anisotropic emission character that is considered as a proof-of-concept of high interest for single-point lighting and display.