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Paper des Monats
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Gasoline adulteration is a frequent problem world-wide, because of the chance of quick, maximized profits. However, addition of cheaper ethanol or hydrocarbons like kerosene does not only result in economic damage but also poses problems for vehicles and the environment. To enable law enforcement forces, customers or enterprises to uncover such a fraudulent activity directly upon suspicion and without the need to organize for sampling and laboratory analysis, we developed a simple strip-based chemical test. Key to the favorable performance was the dedicated materials tailoring, which led to test strips that consisted of a cellulose support coated with silica, passivated with hexamethyldisilazane and functionalized covalently with a molecular probe. The probe fluoresces brightly across a broad solvent polarity range, enabling reliable quantitative measurements and data analysis with a conventional smartphone. The assays showed high reproducibility and accuracy, allowing not only for the detection of gasoline adulteration but also for the on-site monitoring of the quality of commercial E10 gasoline.
Two nanosensors for simultaneous optical measurements of the bioanalytically and biologically relevant analytes temperature (“T”), oxygen (“O”), and pH (“P”) have been designed. These “TOP” nanosensors are based on 100 nmsized silica-coated polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) doped with a near-infrared emissive oxygen- and temperature-sensitive chromium(III) complex ([Cr(ddpd)2][BPh4]3, CrBPh4) and an inert reference dye (Nile Red, NR or 5,10,15,20tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin, TFPP) and are covalently labeled with pHsensitive fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC). These emitters can be excited at the same wavelength and reveal spectrally distinguishable emission bands, allowing for ratiometric intensity-based and time-resolved studies in the visible and near-infrared wavelength region. Studies in PBS buffer solutions and in a model body liquid demonstrate the applicability of these nanosensors for the sensitive luminescence readout of TOP simultaneously at the same spatialposition.
Carbon dots have attracted much attention due to their unique optical, chemical and electronic properties enabling a wide range of applications. The properties of carbon dots can be effectively adjusted through modifying their chemical composition. However, a major challenge remains in understanding the core and surface contributions to optical and electronic transitions. Here, three blue luminescent carbon dots with carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups were comprehensively characterized by UV-vis absorption and emission spectroscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. The influence of the surface functionality on their fluorescence was probed by pH-dependent photoluminescence measurements. Moreover, the hydrogen bonding interactions between water and the surface groups of carbon dots were characterized by infrared spectroscopy. Our results show that both core and surface electronic states of blue luminescent carbon dots contribute to electronic acceptor levels while the chemical nature of the surface groups determines the hydrogen bonding behavior of the carbon dots. This comprehensive spectroscopic study demonstrates that the surface chemistry has a profound influence on the electronic configuration and surface–water interaction of carbon dots, thus affecting their photoluminescence properties.
Invited for this month’s cover picture is the group of Dr. Knut Rurack at the Department of Analytical Chemistry; Reference Materials at the Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM) in Berlin (Germany). The cover picture shows how differences in color and fluorescence on a test strip can be easily read out with a mobile device. Two reference spots Frame the sensitive spot that indicates the presence of trace amounts of HgII below the threshold in a natural water sample. This dipstick contains a hybrid material that combines boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) probes sterically loaded into specifically tailored mesoporous silica particles, allowing for ultrasensitive HgII detection through enhanced fluorescence in a few seconds. The applicability in real water samples and fish extracts are also studied.
The field of epigenetics describes the relationship between genotype and phenotype, by regulating gene expression without changing the canonical base sequence of DNA. It deals with molecular genomic information that is encoded by a rich repertoire of chemical modifications and molecular interactions. This regulation involves DNA, RNA and proteins that are enzymatically tagged with small molecular groups that alter their physical and chemical properties. It is now clear that epigenetic alterations are involved in development and disease, and thus, are the focus of intensive research. The ability to record epigenetic changes and quantify them in rare medical samples is critical for next generation diagnostics. Optical detection offers the ultimate single-molecule sensitivity and the potential for spectral multiplexing. Here we review recent progress in ultrasensitive optical detection of DNA and histone modifications.
Time-resolved flow cytometry represents an alternative to commonly applied spectral or intensity multiplexing in bioanalytics. At present, the vast majority of the reports on this topic focuses on phase-domain techniques and specific applications. In this report, we present a flow cytometry platform with time-resolved detection based on a compact setup and straightforward time-Domain measurements utilizing lifetime-encoded beads with lifetimes in the nanosecond range. We provide general assessment of time-domain flow cytometry and discuss the concept of this platform to address achievable resolution limits, data analysis, and requirements on suitable encoding dyes. Experimental data are complemented by numerical calculations on photon count numbers and impact of noise and measurement time on the obtained lifetime values.
The synthesis, characterization, and application of mesoporous materials containing boron–dipyrromethene (BODIPY) moieties that allow the sensitive and selective detection of HgII in aqueous environments by fluorescence enhancement is reported. For this purpose, BODIPY dye I containing a thia‐aza crown ether receptor as the fluorescent probe for the detection of HgII in aqueous environments is encapsulated into mesoporous materials to avoid self‐quenching or aggregation in water. Determination of HgII is accomplished within a few seconds with high selectivity and sensitivity, reaching a limit of detection of 12 ppt. The determination of trace amounts of HgII in natural waters and in fish extracts is demonstrated by using our sensing material. The incorporation of the material into several μ‐PAD strips yields a portable, cheap, quick, and easy‐to‐handle tool for trace HgII analysis in water.
DNA origami nanostructures provide a platform where dye molecules can be arranged with nanoscale accuracy allowing to assemble multiple fluorophores without dye–dye aggregation. Aiming to develop a bright and sensitive ratiometric sensor system, we systematically studied the optical properties of nanoarrays of dyes built on DNA origami platforms using a DNA template that provides a high versatility of label choice at minimum cost. The dyes are arranged at distances, at which they efficiently interact by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). To optimize array brightness, the FRET efficiencies between the donor fluorescein (FAM) and the acceptor cyanine 3 were determined for different sizes of the array and for different arrangements of the dye molecules within the array. By utilizing nanoarrays providing optimum FRET efficiency and brightness, we subsequently designed a ratiometric pH nanosensor using coumarin 343 as a pH-inert FRET donor and FAM as a pH-responsive acceptor. Our results indicate that the sensitivity of a ratiometric sensor can be improved simply by arranging the dyes into a well-defined array. The dyes used here can be easily replaced by other analyte-responsive dyes, demonstrating the huge potential of DNA nanotechnology for light harvesting, signal enhancement, and sensing schemes in life sciences.
We introduce herein boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes as a new class of fluorophores for the design of reporter dyes for supramolecular host–guest complex formation with cucurbit[7]uril (CB7). The BODIPYs contain a protonatable aniline nitrogen in the meso-position of the BODIPY chromophore, which was functionalized with known binding motifs for CB7. The unprotonated dyes show low fluorescence due to photoinduced electron transfer (PET), whereas the protonated dyes are highly fluorescent. Encapsulation of the binding motif inside CB7 positions the aniline nitrogen at the carbonyl rim of CB7, which affects the pKa value, and leads to a host-induced protonation and thus to a fluorescence increase. The possibility to tune binding affinities and pKa values
is demonstrated and it is shown that, in combination with the beneficial photophysical properties of BODIPYs, several new applications of host–dye reporter pairs can be implemented. This includes indicator displacement assays with favourable absorption and
emission wavelengths in the visible spectral region, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, and noncovalent surface functionalization
with fluorophores.
Detection of pathogenic nucleic acids remains one of the most reliable approaches for the diagnosis of a broad range of diseases. Current PCR-based methods require experienced personnel and cannot be easily used for point-of care diagnostics, making alternative strategies for the sensitive, reliable, and cost-efficient detection of pathogenic nucleic acids highly desirable. Here, we report an enzyme-free method for the fluorometric detection of RNA that relies on a target-induced fluorophore transfer onto a semiconductor quantum dot (QD), uses PNA probes as selective recognition elements and can be read out with simple and inexpensive equipment. For QD-PNA conjugates with optimized PNA content, limits of detection of dengue RNA in the range of 10 pM to 100 nM can be realized within 5 h in the presence of a high excess of noncomplementary RNA.
Because of the globally increasing prevalence of diabetes, the need for accurate, efficient and at best miniaturized automated analytical systems for sugar detection in medical diagnostics and the food industry is still urgent. The development of molecular probes for sugars based on boronic acid receptors offers an excellent alternative to the kinetically slow enzyme-based sugar sensors. Moreover, by coupling such chelating units with dye scaffolds like BODIPYs (boron–dipyrromethenes), highly fluorescent sugar sensing schemes can be realized. In this work, a boronic acid-functionalized BODIPY probe was developed, which binds selectively to fructose’s adjacent diols to form cyclic boronate esters. Placement of an amino group in direct neighborhood of the boronic acid moiety allowed us to obtain a broad working range at neutral pH, which distinguishes the probe from the majority of systems working only at pH > 8, while still meeting the desired sensitivity in the micro-molar range due to a pronounced analyte-induced fluorescence increase. To enhance the applicability of the test in the sense described above, integration with a microfluidic chip was achieved. Here, fructose was selectively detected by fluorescence with similar sensitivity in real time on chip, and an assay for the straightforward detection of sugar in (colored) sodas without sample clean-up was established.
Highly emissive phenanthrene-fused boron–dipyrromethene (PBDP) dyes have been spectroscopically characterized in a series of solvents. The influence of different substituents (-H,
-I, -CN, -DMA or a 15C5-crown ether) in the para-position of a phenyl ring attached to the meso-position of the BODIPY core is discussed. This family of dyes has an intense emission at lambda > 630 nm, with fluorescence quantum yields between 0.7 and 1.0 in all solvents studied, except in the case of the dimethylamino-substituted
derivative, PBDP-DMA, which undergoes excited-state intramolecular charge transfer (CT), leading to broadband dual fluorescence in highly polar solvents. Introduction of a weaker electron donor such as a benzocrown to the meso-position is not able to trigger a second (charge or electron transfer) process and, interestingly, heavy atom (iodine, PBDP-I derivative) substitution at that moiety does also not have a relevant influence on the photophysics, i.e., enhanced intersystem crossing was not observed.
Electrochemical studies of PBDP-DMA complement the data reported and stress the fact that the decrease in fluorescence of PBDP-DMA in highly polar solvents is due to an excited-state CT process
rather than to a photoinduced electron transfer (PET).
Fluorescent sensory MIP (molecularly imprinted polymer) particles were combined with a droplet-based 3D microfluidic system for the selective determination of a prototype small-molecule analyte of environmental concern, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or 2,4-D, at nanomolar concentration directly in water samples. A tailor-made fluorescent indicator cross-linker was thus designed that translates the binding event directly into an enhanced fluorescence signal. The phenoxazinone-type cross-linker was co-polymerized into a thin MIP layer grafted from the surface of silica microparticles following a RAFT (reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer) polymerization protocol. While the indicator cross-linker outperformed its corresponding monomer twin, establishment of a phase-transfer protocol was essential to guarantee that the hydrogen bond-mediated signalling mechanism between the urea binding site on the indicator cross-linker and the carboxylate group of the analyte was still operative upon real sample analysis. The latter was achieved by integration of the fluorescent core-shell MIP sensor particles into a modular microfluidic platform that allows for an in-line phasetransfer assay, extracting the analyte from aqueous sample droplets into the organic phase that contains the sensor particles. Real-time fluorescence determination of 2,4-D down to 20 nM was realized with the system and applied for the analysis of various surface water samples collected from different parts of the world.