Jianguo Wang

Fluorescent turn-on sensing of bacterial lipopolysaccharide in artificial urine sample with sensitivity down to nanomolar by tetraphenylethylene based aggregation induced emission molecule.

A tetraphenylethylene based aggregation induced emission (AIE) probe, TPEPyE, bearing a positively charged pyridinium pendant was designed and synthesized. The positively charged TPEPyE can efficiently bind to the negatively charged lipopolysaccharide (LPS) through electrostatic interactions between the two oppositely charged species. As a result, upon the addition of LPS into the PBS solution of TPEPyE, this probe aggregated immediately onto the surface of LPS and resulted over 22-fold of fluorescence enhancement. TPEPyE exhibited good selectivity and high sensitivity toward LPS in PBS buffer solution and the detection limit was calculated to be 370 pM (3.7ng/mL). More notably, TPEPyE also retained good sensitivity and selectivity in artificial urine system (with much higher ionic strength) with the detection limit down to nanomolar. Moreover, this probe can also make a distinction between gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), making it a promising sensor for clinical monitoring of urinary tract infections.

Ionization and Anion−π+ Interaction: A New Strategy for Structural Design of Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens

Recent years have witnessed the significant role of anion-π+ interactions in many areas, which potentially brings the opportunity for the development of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) systems. Here, a new strategy that utilized anion-π+ interactions to block detrimental π-π stacking was first proposed to develop inherent-charged AIE systems. Two AIE-active luminogens, namely, 1,2,3,4-tetraphenyloxazolium (TPO-P) and 2,3,5-triphenyloxazolium (TriPO-PN), were successfully synthesized. Comprehensive techniques such as single-crystal analysis, theoretical calculation, and conductivity measurement were used to illustrate the effects of anion-π+ interactions on the AIE feature. Their analogues tetraphenylfuran (TPF) and 2,4,5-triphenyloxazole (TriPO-C) without anion-π+ interactions suffered from the aggregation-caused emission quenching in the aggregate state, demonstrating the important role of anion-π+ interactions in suppressing π-π stacking. TriPO-PN was biocompatible and could specifically target lysosome in fluorescence turn-on and wash-free manners. This suggested that it was a promising contrast agent for bioimaging.

Multiscale Humidity Visualization by Environmentally Sensitive Fluorescent Molecular Rotors

Building humidity sensors possessing the features of diverse-configuration compatibility, and capability of measurement of spatial and temporal humidity gradients is of great interest for highly integrated electronics and wearable monitoring systems. Herein, a visual sensing approach based on fluorescent imaging is presented, by assembling aggregation-induced-emission (AIE)-active molecular rotors into a moisture-captured network; the resulting AIE humidity sensors are compatible with diverse applications, having tunable geometries and desirable architectures. The invisible information of relative humidity (RH) is transformed into different fluorescence colors that enable direct observation by the naked eyes based on the twisted intramolecular charge-transfer effect of the AIE-active molecular rotors. The resulting AIE humidity sensors show excellent performance in terms of good sensitivity, precise quantitative measurement, high spatial-temporal resolution, and fast response/recovery time. Their multiscale applications, such as regional environmental RH detection, internal humidity mapping, and sensitive human-body humidity sensing are demonstrated. The proposed humidity visualization strategy may provide a new insight to develop humidity sensors for various applications.

An AIE based tetraphenylethylene derivative for highly selective and light-up sensing of fluoride ions in aqueous solution and in living cells

An AIE based tetraphenylethylene derivative (MOTIPS-TPE) with a pyridinium pendant was synthesized for light-up sensing of F− in aqueous solution without additives. The fluoride ion promoted cleavage reaction gave MOTIPS-TPE high selectivity toward F− over other common anions. Moreover, MOTIPS-TPE can be used to monitor F− in living HeLa cells.

Corannulene‐Incorporated AIE Nanodots with Highly Suppressed Nonradiative Decay for Boosted Cancer Phototheranostics In Vivo

Fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) based on luminogens with aggregation-induced emission characteristic (AIEgens), namely AIE dots, have received wide attention because of their antiquenching attitude in emission and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation when aggregated. However, few reports are available on how to control and optimize their fluorescence and ROS generation ability. Herein, it is reported that enhancing the intraparticle confined microenvironment is an effective approach to advanced AIE dots, permitting boosted cancer phototheranostics in vivo. Formulation of a rotor-rich and inherently charged near-infrared (NIR) AIEgen with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] and corannulene-decorated PEG affords DSPE-AIE dots and Cor-AIE dots, respectively. Compared to DSPE-AIE dots, Cor-AIE dots show 4.0-fold amplified fluorescence quantum yield and 5.4-fold enhanced ROS production, because corannulene provides intraparticle rigidity and strong interactions with the AIEgen to restrict the intramolecular rotation of AIEgen to strongly suppress the nonradiative decay and significantly facilitate the fluorescence pathway and intersystem crossing. Thus, it tremendously promotes phototheranostic efficacies in terms of NIR image-guided cancer surgery and photodynamic therapy using a peritoneal carcinomatosis-bearing mouse model. Collectively, it not only provides a novel strategy to advanced AIE dots for cancer phototheranostics, but also brings new insights into the design of superior fluorescent NPs for biomedical applications.

A fast responsive, highly selective and light-up fluorescent probe for the two-photon imaging of carboxylesterase in living cells

A fast responsive and two photon fluorescent probe (HCyNAc) for carboxylesterase (CaE) has been designed based on the D-π-A structure of hemicyanine and naphthalene derivatives. After enzymatic reaction, HCyNAc enabled light-up fluorescence assay of CaE over other biologically-relevant species and enzymes, including ROS. Two-photon imaging of endogenous CaE was confirmed in HeLa cells using HCyNAc under 800 nm NIR excitation.

A facile strategy for realizing room temperature phosphorescence and single molecule white light emission

Research on materials with pure organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and their application as organic single-molecule white light emitters is a hot area and relies on the design of highly efficient pure organic RTP luminogens. Herein, a facile strategy of heavy-atom-participated anion–π+ interactions is proposed to construct RTP-active organic salt compounds (1,2,3,4-tetraphenyloxazoliums with different counterions). Those compounds with heavy-atom counterions (bromide and iodide ions) exhibit outstanding RTP due to the external heavy atom effect via anion–π+ interactions, evidently supported by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and theoretical calculation. Their single-molecule white light emission is realized by tuning the degree of crystallization. Such white light emission also performs well in polymer matrices and their use in 3D printing is demonstrated by white light lampshades.The demonstration of pure organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) luminogens with complementary emission is a key requirement for developing low-cost white light emitters. Here, the authors construct RTP-active organic salt compounds by exchanging the counterion with a heavy halide ion.

Side-chain effect of perylene diimide tetramer-based non-fullerene acceptors for improving the performance of organic solar cells

Two novel perylene diimide tetramer-based non-fullerene acceptors, PDIPQ-C5 and PDIPQ-C6, with different alkyl chain lengths were synthesized. Side-chain effects were studied by theoretical calculations, grazing incident X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. Organic solar cells based on PDIPQ-C5:P3TEA blend films with 2.5% DIO solvent additive exhibited the highest PCEs (5.16%).

A multifunctional luminogen with aggregation-induced emission characteristics for selective imaging and photodynamic killing of both cancer cells and Gram-positive bacteria

The increasing impact of bacteria on cancer progression and treatments has been witnessed in recent years. Insufficient attention to cancer-related bacteria may lead to distant metastasis, poor therapeutic efficiency and low survival rates for cancers. Exploiting new approaches that enable selective imaging and effective killing of cancer cells and bacteria are thus of great value for the battle against cancers. Herein, we report an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen, namely TPPCN, with intense emission and efficient reactive oxygen species production for fluorescence imaging and killing cancer cells and Gram-positive bacteria. This work not only demonstrates the potential of AIE luminogens in comprehensive cancer treatments but also stimulates the enthusiasm of scientists to design more multifunctional AIE systems for both cancer and bacteria theranostics.