A butterfly-shaped ESIPT molecule with solid-state fluorescence for the detection of latent fingerprints and exogenous and endogenous ONOO- by caging of the phenol donor

Rotor proliferation promotes high-brightness AIE of iridium emitter accomplishing high-contrast luminous imaging of latent fingerprints to level 3 details

Luminous imaging of latent fingerprints (LFPs) necessitates the possession of high-brightness aggregation-state luminescence by developers to ensure sufficient imaging contrast and resolution. A novel strategy involving incremental rotor modification is presented for AIE activation of the iridium developer. The rotor proliferation prominently improves the rotational activity of groups and facilitates high-efficiency RIM, thereby prompting the AIE activation of iridium developer with high luminous efficiency. Subsequently, a prompt, high-contrast, and robust LFP imaging protocol is developed utilizing the high-brightness AIE-active iridium developer. This innovative protocol realizes the luminous imaging and quantification of microscopic features in fingerprint ridges and furrows, including ridge widths, edge morphology of ridges, included angles, pores, and pore pitches with exceptional imaging contrast and refined detail resolution. Moreover, it allows for accurate identification of individual traits across diverse substrates without any pre-/post-processing to LFPs. The high-brightness AIE-active iridium developer provides outstanding aging resistance to developed fingerprints, thereby strongly supporting the acquisition, transfer, and preservation of fingerprint evidence. The luminous imaging protocol of LFPs based on high-brightness AIE exhibits robust adaptability to actual scenes and offers a premium scheme for facilitating forensic investigation.

Ex Tenebris Lux: Illuminating Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species with Small Molecule Probes

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are small reactive molecules derived from elements in the air─oxygen and nitrogen. They are produced in biological systems to mediate fundamental aspects of cellular signaling but must be very tightly balanced to prevent indiscriminate damage to biological molecules. Small molecule probes can transmute the specific nature of each reactive oxygen and nitrogen species into an observable luminescent signal (or even an acoustic wave) to offer sensitive and selective imaging in living cells and whole animals. This review focuses specifically on small molecule probes for superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, nitric oxide, and peroxynitrite that provide a luminescent or photoacoustic signal. Important background information on general photophysical phenomena, common probe designs, mechanisms, and imaging modalities will be provided, and then, probes for each analyte will be thoroughly evaluated. A discussion of the successes of the field will be presented, followed by recommendations for improvement and a future outlook of emerging trends. Our objectives are to provide an informative, useful, and thorough field guide to small molecule probes for reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as well as important context to compare the ecosystem of chemistries and molecular scaffolds that has manifested within the field.

Real-time monitoring of endogenous cysteine in LPS-induced oxidative stress process with a novel lysosome-targeted fluorescent probe

Cysteine (Cys), one of essential small-molecule-based biothiols in the human body, contributes to the regulation of redox reactions and is closely associated with many physiological and pathological metabolic processes. Herein, a novel fluorescent probe, hydroxyphenyl-conjugated benzothiazole (HBT-Cys) capable of detecting Cys was constructed, where acrylate served as the recognition group and hydroxyphenyl-linked benzothiazole acted as the fluorophore. The fluorescence of the probe was negligible in the absence of Cys, and an intense blue fluorescence was observed upon addition of Cys. The Cys-sensing mechanism could be ascribed to the Cys-involved hydrolysis reaction with acrylate, leading to light up the emission at 430 nm with about 80-fold enhancement. In addition, HBT-Cys exhibited a fast response time, remarkable selectivity and low detection limit. HBT-Cys also worked well in real-time monitoring of Cys in three different food samples (wolfberry, hawthorn, and red dates). Importantly, our probe had an excellent lysosomes-targeted ability, which was successfully employed to real-time visualize the fluctuation of both exogenous and endogenous Cys in living cells and zebrafish under lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced oxidative stress. Hopefully, the work shown here provides a potent candidate for the real-time tracking of Cys fluctuations in various biological samples.

Multifunctional Mitochondria-Targeting Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Viscosity, ONOO-, Mitophagy, and Bioimaging

Irregularities in mitochondrial viscosity and peroxynitrite (ONOO-) concentration can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. It is still a great challenge to develop near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes to simultaneously detect viscosity, endogenous ONOO-, and mitophagy. Herein, a multifunctional mitochondria-targeting NIR fluorescent probe P-1 was first synthesized for simultaneously detecting viscosity, ONOO-, and mitophagy. P-1 used quinoline cations as a mitochondrial targeting moiety, arylboronate as an ONOO- responsive group, and detected the change of viscosity by the twisted internal charge transfer (TICT) mechanism. The probe has an excellent response to the viscosity during inflammation by lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) and mitophagy induced by starvation at 670 nm. The viscosity changes of the probe induced by nystatin in zebrafish showed that P-1 was able to detect microviscosity in vivo. P-1 also showed good sensitivity with a detection limit of 6.2 nM for ONOO- detection and was successfully applied to the endogenous ONOO- detection in zebrafish. Moreover, P-1 has the ability to distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells. All of these features make P-1 a promising candidate to detect mitophagy and ONOO- -associated physiological and pathological processes.

High-definition and robust visualization of latent fingerprints utilizing ultrabright aggregation-induced emission of iridium developer

Creation of AIEgens with high brightness is compactly related to acquiring optimum AIE capabilities and still faces challenges. This study proposes an ingenious structurally regulative approach for preparing ultrabright AIEgens, taking iridium complexes as the model. The incremental rotational activity of substituents obtained by fine adjustment of the stereoscopic configuration efficaciously activates the AIE of iridium complexes and synchronously imparts high-brightness luminescence. Subsequently, benefitting from the ultrabright AIE, high-resolution visualization of latent fingerprints (LFPs) is achieved on diverse substrates by transient immersion in a solution of the AIE-active iridium complex (Ir3) for 60 s. The LFPs stained by Ir3 are integral and distinct enough to possess level 1-3 detail features, which allow precisely realizing personal identification. The LFP photograph emerges inconspicuous attenuation of contrast when aged under ambient light for 10 days and then being continuously irradiated with high-power ultraviolet light for 1 h, reflecting extraordinary aging resistance. Notably, the ultrabright AIE of Ir3 with room-temperature phosphorescence feature successfully achieves enhanced visualization of local fingerprint details with ultrahigh contrast. This LFP visualization protocol based on the ultrabright AIEgens is practical and provides a reliable solution for forensic investigations in actual scenarios.

Regulating the activity of boronate moiety to construct fluorescent probes for the detection of ONOO-in vitro and in vivo

Abnormal intracellular peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) concentration is related to oxidative damage, which is correlated with many pathological consequences, such as local inflammation and other diseases. In this work, a series of resorufin benzyl ether-based fluorescent probes were designed using boronate as a recognizing moiety installed on a phenyl moiety for ONOO^- detection via a self-immolation mechanism. The location of the boronate as well as the substitution patterns on the phenyl moiety were investigated and the responding behaviors of the designed probes to ONOO^-, other reactive oxygen species, and biothiols were examined. It was found that all the immolative probes were inevitably dominated by ONOO^-. Compared with other probes, p-Borate possessed favorable selectivity and high sensitivity to ONOO^-. Moreover, p-Borate was successfully used to detect ONOO^- in cells and inflamed mice.

One-step facile preparation of carbon dots with high fluorescence quantum yield and application in rapid latent fingerprint detection

The development of luminescent materials greatly affects the development of fluorescence imaging technology. The preparation of carbon dots (CDs) with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) in the solid-state is challenging due to excessive resonance energy transfer (RET) and direct π-π interactions. In this study, we synthesized carbon dots that exhibit green fluorescence (GCDs) with absolute PLQYs up to 35.65% in one step by a microwave-assisted method. In the solid-state, the absolute PLQY reached 19.25%. Then, the GCDs were mixed with soluble starch in appropriate proportions, which improved the adsorption and dispersion of the GCDs and greatly reduced the cost of the fingerprint powder, and increased the absolute PLQY of the fingerprint powder to 41.75%. Finally, we prepared GCDs for preliminary fabrication of luminescent films, and the GCD-starch powder was successfully applied to high-quality latent fingerprint (LFP) imaging. The related properties of GCDs and the LFP detection performance of fingerprint detection powders prepared by GCDs were studied in detail. The results showed that the LFP system developed with GCDs-starch powder visualized LFPs with high definition and contrast under different conditions, and GCDs had potential for application in light-emitting devices. This study developed a new type of solid-state luminescent CDs and demonstrated that these GCDs have great application potential for LFP detection. This study may also provide inspiration for other applications based on efficient solid-state fluorescence.

Enhancing probe's sensitivity for peroxynitrite through alkoxy modification of dicyanovinylchromene

An intramolecular charge transfer (ICT)-based fluorescent probe P-ONOO^- was synthesized to detect ONOO^-. After responding to peroxynitrite, the dicyano-vinyl group of P-ONOO^- generates the aldehyde group, emitting strong green fluorescence accompanied by quenching of the yellow fluorescence. According to the calculated Fukui function, the modification of the alkoxy group can enhance the f⁺ of P-ONOO^-, which can enhance the probe's nucleophilic addition reactivity with ONOO^-. It has been experimentally verified that P-ONOO^- shows fast response (within 30 s), excellent sensitivity (the detection limit = 10.4 nM), and good selectivity towards ONOO^-. Additionally, the probe P-ONOO^- has high membrane permeability and good biocompatibility, which can image endogenous ONOO^- and exogenous ONOO^- in HeLa cells.

Cross-Linking Induced Emission of Polymer Micelles for High-Contrast Visualization Level 3 Details of Latent Fingerprints

Rationally developing an intelligent tool for high-contrast fluorescence imaging of latent fingerprints (LFPs) is gaining much concern in many applications such as medical diagnostics and forensic investigations. Herein, the off-on fluorescent polymer micelles (PMs) have been rationally designed and synthesized for high-contrast fluorescence imaging of LFPs through the cross-linking reaction of hydrazine (N₂H₄) and aldehyde group of polymer. Excitingly, the cross-linking (N₂H₄) induced emission of PMs has the property of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), which could effectively address the notorious aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effects of conventional organic dyes. In addition, the cross-linking strategy can not only improve structural stability of PMs but also enhance its fluorescence brightness. The experiment results demonstrated that PMs showed high water dispersibility (100% aqueous solution), high selectivity, large Stokes shift (∼150 nm), good photostability, and excellent long-term stability. Because of the hydrophobic interaction between the PMs and fingerprint components, the PMs preferentially adhered onto the ridges of fingerprint, and then cross-linking (N₂H₄) induced emission properties endowed the PMs for high-contrast imaging of LFPs in different substrates, especially the levels 1-3 details of LFPs. We expect that this strategy will provide vital support for LFPs technology.

Recent Developments in Plasmonic Sensors of Phenol and Its Derivatives

Many scientists are increasingly interested in on-site detection methods of phenol and its derivatives because these substances have been universally used as a significant raw material in the industrial manufacturing of various chemicals of antimicrobials, anti-inflammatory drugs, antioxidants, and so on. The contamination of phenolic compounds in the natural environment is a toxic response that induces harsh impacts on plants, animals, and human health. This mini-review updates recent developments and trends of novel plasmonic resonance nanomaterials, which are assisted by various optical sensors, including colorimetric, fluorescence, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), and plasmon-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. These advanced and powerful analytical tools exhibit potential application for ultrahigh sensitivity, selectivity, and rapid detection of phenol and its derivatives. In this report, we mainly emphasize the recent progress and novel trends in the optical sensors of phenolic compounds. The applications of Raman technologies based on pure noble metals, hybrid nanomaterials, and metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are presented, in which the remaining establishments and challenges are discussed and summarized to inspire the future improvement of scientific optical sensors into easy-to-operate effective platforms for the rapid and trace detection of phenol and its derivatives.