Condensed state fluorescence switching of hexaarylbiimidazole-tetraphenylethene conjugate for super-resolution fluorescence nanolocalization

• Published in: 中国光电子学前沿：英文版 2013 (4), p.458-467
• Main Author: Wen-Liang GONG Zhe HU Chong LI Guo-Feng ZHANG Tao CHEN Matthew. P. ALDRED Zhen-Li HUANG Ming-Qiang ZHU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 光致变色; 凝聚态; 发射波长; 紫外线照射; 纳米结构; 聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯; 荧光开关; 超分辨率
• ISSN: 1674-4128; 1674-4594

This paper reported the synthesis of hexaar- ylbiimidazole-tetraphenylethene （HABI-TPE） conjugated photochromic fluorophore, which simultaneously exhib- ited photochromic property, condensed state enhanced emission and reversible fluorescence switching. Upon UV irradiation, a green species with a broad absorption band between 550 and 800 nm（ the absorption maximum at 697 nm ） was observed, which readily faded to colorless in the darkness. HABI-TPE launched strong fluorescence with the maximum emission wavelength at 520 580 nm under the excitation with 450-500 nm visible light in condensed state, which is in contrast to nonfluorescence in solution. The maximum emission wavelength in condensed state was dependent of excitation wavelength. More interest- ingly, HABI-TPE exhibited reversible fluorescence switch- ing upon alternating irradiation with blue or near-UV light （wavelength less than 490 nm） and green light （more than 490 nm） in condensed state. Our evaluation demonstrated that HABI-TPE exhibited great photoswitchable fluores- cence, which is a promising photoswitchable fluorophore for localization-based super-resolution microscopy, evi- dencing by resolving nanostructures with sub-100nm resolution in polymethylmethacrylate films.