Evaluation of optical properties of fluorescent nanofiber using image-processing technique

Purpose The purpose of this study is evaluate the optical properties of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers containing fluorescent agents such as fluorescent dye and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) by using image-processing technique of Fluorescence microscope image. Design/methodology/approach The fluorescence microscope image of the pure PAN, PAN/CQDs and PAN/fluorescent dye nanofibers composite was analyzed using several image-processing techniques such as color histogram, lookup table (LUT), Fourier transform, RGB profile and surface plot analysis. Findings The fluorescence microscope image indicates that the fluorescence emission of nanocomposites depends on the type of fluorescent agent. The fluorescence intensity of nanofiber containing CQDs is more than nanofiber containing fluorescent dye. Various image-processing methods provide similar results for optical property of nanocomposites. Analyzing the LUT, the blue value of CQDs/PAN nanocomposite image was significantly higher than other nanocomposites. This was confirmed by other methods such as Fourier transform, color histogram and 3D topography of the electrospun nanofibers. According to analysis of colorimetric parameters, higher negative value of b* indicates bluer color for CQDs/PAN nanofibers than other nanocomposites. The obtained results indicate that the image-processing technique can be used to evaluate the optical property of fluorescent nanocomposite. Originality/value This study evaluates the optical properties of fluorescent nanocomposites by using image-processing techniques such as Fourier transform, color histogram, RGB profiles, LUT, surface plot and histogram analysis.