Synthesis and photophysical properties of heptamethine cyanine–fullerene C60 dyads with non-quenched fluorescence

Two new heptamethine cyanine dye–fullerene C₆₀ covalently- linked dyads, which absorb in far-red and NIR spectral regions, have been synthesized by esterification click reaction and characterized by physicochemical methods. No significant fluorescence quenching was found due to weak electronic coupling between heptamethine moiety and fullerene core, which was confirmed by photophysical and electrochemical methods. Such dyads can be useful for cell imaging and fluorescence diagnostics of various fullerene derivatives.     

萘咪唑类稀土配合物的晶体结构和荧光性质

通过2-（2''-羟基-3''-甲氧基）萘咪唑（HL）和Ln（NO）₃·6H₂O反应,合成了4种单核稀土配合物[Ln（HL）₂（NO₃）₃]·CH₂Cl₂（Ln=Sm（1）,Eu（2）,Tb（3））和[Ln（HL）₂（NO₃）₂（CH₃OH）]NO₃·CH₃OH（Ln=Yb（4））。X射线单晶衍射分析表明配合物1~4均通过配体萘环间的π-π作用呈现蝴蝶状结构。荧光性质表明仅有配合物4显示Yb³⁺稀土离子的特征发光,固态和在乙腈溶液中的荧光寿命分别为8.27 μs和4.40 μs。     

Muscle oxygenation measurement in humans by noninvasive optical spectroscopy and Locally Weighted Regression

We have developed a method to make real-time, continuous, noninvasive measurements of muscle oxygenation (Mox) from the surface of the skin. A key development was measurement in both the visible and near infrared (NIR) regions. Measurement of both oxygenated and deoxygenated myoglobin and hemoglobin resulted in a more accurate measurement of Mox than could be achieved with measurement of only the deoxygenated components, as in traditional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Using the second derivative with respect to wavelength reduced the effects of scattering on the spectra and also made oxygenated and deoxygenated forms more distinguishable from each other. Selecting spectral bands where oxygenated and deoxygenated forms absorb filtered out noise and spectral features unrelated to Mox. NIR and visible bands were scaled relative to each other in order to correct for errors introduced by normalization. Multivariate Curve Resolution (MCR) was used to estimate Mox from spectra within each data set collected from healthy subjects. A Locally Weighted Regression (LWR) model was built from calibration set spectra and associated Mox values from 20 subjects using 2562 spectra. LWR and Partial Least Squares (PLS) allow accurate measurement of Mox despite variations in skin pigment or fat layer thickness in different subjects. The method estimated Mox in five healthy subjects with an RMSE of 5.4%.     

Stability of Water/Crude Oil Systems Correlated to the Physicochemical Properties of the Oil Phase

A characterization of 30 crude oils has been performed to determine the relative level of influence that individual parameters have over the overall stability of w/o emulsions. The crude oils have been analyzed with respect to bulk and interfacial properties and the characteristics of their w/o emulsions. The parameters include compositional properties, acidity, spectroscopic signatures in the infrared and near‐infrared region, density, viscosity, molecular weight, interfacial tension, dilational relaxation, droplet size distribution, and stability to gravitationally and electrically induced separation. As expected, a strong covariance between several physicochemical properties was found. Near‐infrared spectroscopy proved to be an effective tool for crude oil analysis. In particular, we have showed the importance of the hydrodynamic resistance to electrically‐induced separation (static) in heavy crude oil‐water emulsions. A rough estimate of the drag forces and dielectrophoretic forces seemed to capture the difference between the 30 crude oils. Given enough time, water‐in‐heavy oil emulsions could be destabilized even at very low electric field magnitude (d.c.). When droplets approach each other in an inhomogeneous electric field, strong dielectrophoretic forces disintegrate the films and result in coalescence. The relative contribution from film stability to the overall emulsion stability may therefore be very different in a gravitational field compared to that in an electrical field.     

Synchronous ATR infrared and NIR-spectroscopy investigation of sepiolite upon drying

A new environmental cell allowing for the independent synchronous collection of the near- and mid-infrared spectra (12,000–600 cm⁻¹) in the diffuse reflection and attenuated total reflection (ATR) modes, respectively, is reported. The cell is employed to study in real time the dehydration of the phyllosilicate mineral sepiolite, Mg₈Si₁₂O₃₀(OH)₄(OH₂)₄·wH₂O, in both its natural form and after in situ deuteration at ambient. The spectra are obtained under dynamic purging with dry N₂ and compared to those of the same material conditioned over saturated salt solutions. Sepiolite is an important industrial mineral with a modulated structure of alternating tunnels and ribbons. Its mild drying is associated with pronounced vibrational spectral changes due to the removal of surface and zeolitic H₂O and the concomitant structural relaxation of the ribbons. Detailed assignments are provided for the fundamental, combination and overtone spectrum of H₂O confined in the tunnels of sepiolite, SiOH groups on the external surface of the particles, and Mg₃OH groups in the 2:1 ribbons. The spectra are discussed in comparison to those of palygorskite (modulated phyllosilicate with narrower ribbons and tunnels), talc (trioctahedral magnesian phyllosilicate without modulation) and high-surface area silica. It is demonstrated that sepiolite exhibits three discrete states of zeolitic hydration at ambient temperature: Besides the previously known hydrated (w = 7–8) and dry (w = 0–1) states which dominate the spectra above 30% and below 3% relative humidity, respectively, a hitherto unknown intermediate (w = 4–5) is found in the 3–10% range. The new state is most conveniently identified in the near-infrared by a ν₀₂ Mg₃O-H stretching mode at 7205 cm⁻¹ (ν₀₁ = 3686 cm⁻¹, X = 83.5 cm⁻¹) and a characteristic H₂O combination band at 5271 cm⁻¹ (D₂O: 3908 cm⁻¹).     

Characterization and quantification of secondary metabolite profiles in leaves of red and white clover species by NIR and ATR-IR spectroscopy

Different varieties of two clover species (Trifolium pratense L. and Trifolium repens L.), cultivated in 2008 and 2009 were analysed by near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy for establishing a fast and reliable quantification protocol for isoflavones and phenolic acids. Based on HPLC–UV/MS reference data, good results were obtained by PLS regression for the prediction of total isoflavone (R² = 0.90) as well as for glycitin content (R² = 0.88). Because of the lower concentration of formononetin and phenolic acids, their prediction quality was generally slightly lower (R² = 0.73 and R² = 0.64, respectively) compared to those of the isoflavones. The applicability of ‘leave one out’ cross validation for such a large data set is proven by comparison to an averaged randomized test-set validation leading to similar results. Additionally, the large sample set (n = 624) was screened by hierarchical cluster analysis allowing a fast evaluation of influences resulting from different cultivation parameters on the isoflavone and phenolic acid content. Climatic changes (cultivation year, date of harvest) seem to have the most impact on the metabolic profile as indicated by higher variability in the referring spectra when both cultivation years were simultaneously regarded. This work offers a new vibrational spectroscopic approach for the qualitative and quantitative determination of isoflavone and phenolic acid profiles, directly performed in the plant material without any laborious sample preparation and time-consuming chromatography. Once validated by HPLC reference, MIR and NIR spectroscopy can be used for the reliable prediction of secondary metabolites in clover as well as for fast screening and pre-evaluation of the diversity of a large sample set, aiming to reduce analytical costs, chemical waste and expenditure of time.     

Near‐Infrared‐Controlled,Targeted Hydrophobic Drug‐Delivery System for Synergistic Cancer Therapy

Hydrophobicity has been an obstacle that hinders the use of many anticancer drugs. A critical challenge for cancer therapy concerns the limited availability of effective biocompatible delivery systems for most hydrophobic therapeutic anticancer drugs. In this study, we have developed a targeted near‐infrared (NIR)‐regulated hydrophobic drug‐delivery platform based on gold nanorods incorporated within a mesoporous silica framework (AuMPs). Upon application of NIR light, the photothermal effect of the gold nanorods leads to a rapid rise in the local temperature, thus resulting in the release of the entrapped drug molecules. By integrating chemotherapy and photothermotherapy into one system, we have studied the therapeutic effects of camptothecin‐loaded AuMP‐polyethylene glycol‐folic acid nanocarrier. Results revealed a synergistic effect in vitro and in vivo, which would make it possible to enhance the therapeutic effect of hydrophobic drugs and decrease drug side effects. Studies have shown the feasibility of using this nanocarrier as a targeted and noninvasive remote‐controlled hydrophobic drug‐delivery system with high spatial/temperal resolution. Owing to these advantages, we envision that this NIR‐controlled, targeted drug‐delivery method would promote the development of high‐performance hydrophobic anticancer drug‐delivery system in future clinical applications.     

Synthesis and Molecular Properties of Acceptor‐Substituted Squaraine Dyes

A broad series of more than 20 acceptor‐substituted squaraines was synthesized that feature different acceptor functionalities at the central squaraine four‐membered ring. The influence of these acceptor units on the reactivity of semisquaraine precursors and stability of the respective squaraines were explored. Thereby the dicyanovinyl group was found to be the most versatile acceptor group that enabled various modifications at the donor moiety of the squaraine scaffold, leading to an extended series of dicyanovinyl‐functionalized squaraines. The variation of donor units afforded a set of NIR fluorophores that cover a wavelength region from the visible at about 650 nm far into the NIR up to 920 nm with fluorescence quantum yields between 0.93 and 0.11 and outstanding optical brightness. This excellent optical property is related to a rigid molecular scaffold that is fixed in an all‐cis configuration by the additional dicyanovinyl acceptor unit. The change of the molecular symmetry from C_2h to C_2v upon functionalization of the squaraine core with dicyanovinyl acceptor group has been confirmed in solution by electro‐optical absorption (EOA) spectroscopy, revealing permanent ground‐state dipole moments μ_g in the range between 4.3 and 6.4 D. These dipole moments direct an antiparallel packing of the molecules in the solid state according to single‐crystal X‐ray analyses achieved for four dicyanovinyl‐functionalized squaraines. The structural properties, the EOA results, as well as the band shapes of the optical spectra indicate that these polymethine dyes are cyanine‐type chromophores. It is worth noting that the orientation of the dipole moment vectors is orthogonal to the orientation of the transition dipole moment vectors, which is an uncommon but characteristic feature of this rather novel class of polymethine dyes. With regard to applications of these dyes in organic solar cells, their redox properties were also studied by cyclic voltammetry.     

BODIPY类近红外荧光染料的研究进展

近红外BODIPY分子是一类新兴的荧光染料, 因其具有优异的光物理和光化学性能而得到广泛的研究, 已成为一个新兴的研究热点。本文综述了近年来BODIPY类近红外荧光分子的设计、合成及应用的最新研究进展, 并展望了其未来的发展方向和应用前景。