Protein-induced fluorescence enhancement of two-photon excitable water-soluble diketopyrrolopyrroles

Fluorogenic in-situ Labelling of Gelatin Polymer in Aqueous Solution and Hydrogel

Gelatin polymers made from partially degraded collagen are important biomaterials, but their in-situ analysis suffers from uncontrollable covalent labelling and poor spatial-temporal imaging resolution. Herein, three tetrazolate-tagged tetraphenylethylene fluorophores (TPE-TAs) are introduced for practical fluorogenic labelling of gelatin in aqueous phase and hydrogels. These probes with aggregation-induced emission characteristics offer negligible background and elicit turn-on fluorescence by simply mixing with the gelatin in aqueous phase, giving a detection limit of 0.15 mg/L over a linear dynamic range up to 100 mg/L. This method does not work for collagens and causes minimal interference with gelatin properties. Mechanistic studies reveal a key role for multivalent electrostatic interactions between the abundant basic residues in gelatin (e. g., lysine, hydroxylysine, arginine) and anionic tetrazolate moieties of the lipophilic fluorophore synergistically in spatially rigid macromolecular encapsulation to achieve fluorogenic labelling. The AIE strategy by forming non-covalent fluorophore-gelatin complexes was developed for novel hydrogels that exhibited reversible fluorescence in response to dynamic microstructural changes in the hydrogel scaffold upon salting-in/out treatments, and enabled high spatial-temporal imaging of the fiber network in lyophilized samples. This work may open up avenues for in-situ imaging analysis and evaluation of gelatin-based biomaterials during processes such as in vivo degradation and mineralization.

Synthesis and characterisation of diketopyrrolopyrrole-based hydrogels

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) based materials can be easily tuned by functionalising with groups that extend the conjugation and thus alter the electronic properties. When attaching thiophenes to give dithiophene-diketopyrrolopyrroles (DTDPPs), a donor-acceptor-donor system is created that is suitable for charge-transfer applications. This core also promotes π-stacking and hydrophobic interactions. Here, we describe a number of DTDPPs functionalised with amino acids that undergo pH-trigerred gelation. We show that the optical properties of our DTDPPs are affected by whether the amino acids have aromatic or aliphatic side chains. We also describe the effect of solvent polarity. We have successfully produced hydrogels via a pH trigger with examples containing phenylalanine (F), valine (V), leucine (L) and alanine (A) amino acids. Viscosity and small angle X-ray scattering measurements show the presence of micellar structures in solution in water at pH 10.5, with gelation starting at a pH less than 7 due to the formation of a fibrous network.

Development and Testing of an All-Atom Force Field for Diketopyrrolopyrrole Polymers with Conjugated Substituents

We develop an all-atom force field for a series of diketopyrrolopyrrole polymers with two aromatic pyridine substituents and a variable number of π-conjugated thiophene units in the backbone (DPP2PymT), used as donor materials in organic photovoltaic devices. Available intrafragment parameterizations of the individual fragment building blocks are combined with interfragment bonded and nonbonded parameters explicitly derived from density functional theory calculations. To validate the force field, we perform classical molecular dynamics simulations of single polymer chains with m = 1, 2, 3 in good and bad solvents and of melts. We observe the expected dependence of the chain conformation on the solvent quality, with the chain collapsing in water, and swelling in chloroform. The glass-transition temperature for the polymer melts is found to be in the range of 340–370 K. Analysis of the mobility of the conjugated segments in the polymer backbone reveals two relaxation processes: a fast one with a characteristic time at room temperature on the order of 10 ps associated with nearly harmonic vibrations and a slow one on the order of 100 ns associated with temperature-activated cis–trans transitions.

aza-BODIPY synthesis towards vis/NIR functional chromophores based on a Schiff base forming reaction protocol using lactams and heteroaromatic amines

The Schiff base forming reaction of lactams and heteroaromatic amines led to creation of a new class of aza-BODIPY analogues as visible and near infrared functional chromophores.

Theoretical Analysis of Optical Absorption and Emission in Mixed Noble Metal Nanoclusters

In this work, we studied theoretically two hybrid gold-silver clusters, which were reported to have dual-band emission, using density functional theory (DFT) and linear and quadratic response time-dependent DFT (TDDFT). Hybrid functionals were found to successfully predict absorption and emission, although explanation of the NIR emission from the larger cluster (cluster 1) requires significant vibrational excitation in the final state. For the smaller cluster (cluster 2), the Δ H(0-0) value calculated for the T1 → S0 transition, using the PBE0 functional, is in good agreement with the measured NIR emission, and the calculated T2 → S0 value is in fair agreement with the measured visible emission. The calculated T1 → S0 phosphorescence Δ H(0-0) for cluster 1 is close to the measured visible emission energy. In order for the calculated phosphorescence for cluster 1 to agree with the intense NIR emission reported experimentally, the vibrational energy of the final state (S0) is required to be about 0.7 eV greater than the zero-point vibrational energy.

Pyrrolopyrrole aza boron dipyrromethene based two-photon fluorescent probes for subcellular imaging

A series of two-photon-absorbing pyrrolopyrrole aza boron dipyrromethenes have been prepared which can serve as fluorescent probes for subcellular imaging.