Light Harvesting Materials: A Study on Förster Resonance Energy Transfer and Optoelectronic Properties of Potential Nerium oleander Flowers

Abstract

The present study focused on extracting the anthocyanin dyes in ethanol, acidic ethanol, methanol, and acidic methanol solvents from Nerium oleander flowers by a simple maceration extraction process. FTIR spectroscopy and vibrational studies have confirmed the existence of polyphenolic groups in 2-phenyl chromenylium (anthocyanin) dyes. The optoelectronic results show the least direct bandgap (2.89 eV), indirect bandgap (1.98 eV), Urbach energy (0.120 eV), high refractive index (1.654), dielectric constant (3.294) and high optical conductivity (1.813 10³ S/m) for the anthocyanin dye extracted found in acidic ethanol solvent. The photoluminescence properties such as Stokes' shift, quantum yield, and lifetime results show that anthocyanin dyes are promising candidates for red-LEDs and optical materials. The excellent correspondence between the absorption and emission spectra reinforces that the anthocyanins are efficient (89%) FRET probes. Further, the donor and acceptor undergo redshift in excitation and emission spectra in all studied solvents. The photometric properties such as CIE, CRI, CCT and color purity results of anthocyanins in all studied solvents revealed that this material exhibits pink to red shades (x = 0.40 → 0.50 and y = 0.46 → 0.39) and is well suitable for have great potential in the manufacturing of Organic-LEDs and other optoelectronic device applications.