Journal
CHEMICAL SCIENCE
Volume 3, Issue 6, Pages 1804-1809Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2sc01108e
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Funding
- Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [HKUST2/CRF/10, 604711, 603509]
- University Grants Committee of Hong Kong [AoE/P-03/08]
- NSFC/RGC [N_HKUST620/11]
- HKUST [RPC11SC09, SRF11SC03PG]
- National Science Foundation of China [20974028]
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In this work, a red-emissive zwitterionic hemicyanine dye, named TPE-Cy, containing tetraphenylethene (TPE) and N-alkylated indolium is designed and synthesized. TPE-Cy inherits the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) feature of TPE and displays a large Stokes shift (>185 nm), overcoming the limitations of the concentration-quenching effect and small Stokes shift (from a few to 20 nm) encountered by conventional cyanine dyes. By taking advantage of the photophysical AIE property and chemical reactivity towards OH-/H+, TPE-Cy is able to sense pH in a broad range (the broadest to date) by showing different emission colors and intensities: strong to moderate red emission at pH 5-7, weak to no emission at pH 7-10, and no emission to strong blue emission at pH 10-14. The acid/base-switched red/blue emission transition is reversible and can be repeated for many cycles. By means of NMR and HRMS analyses, we have drawn a mechanistic picture at molecular level to illustrate how this dye works as a pH-sensitive fluorescent probe.
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