Loading and Release of Charged and Neutral Fluorescent Dyes into and from Mesoporous Materials: A Key Role for Sensing Applications.

The aim of this study is to determine the efficiency of loading and release of several zwitterionic, neutral, anionic and cationic dyes into/from mesoporous nanoparticles to find the optimum loading and release conditions for their application in detection protocols. The loading is carried out for MCM-41 type silica supports suspended in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) buffer (pH 7.4) or in acetonitrile, involving the dyes (rhodamine B chloride, rhodamine 101 chloride, rhodamine 101 perchlorate, rhodamine 101 inner salt, meso-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-BODIPY, sulforhodamine B sodium salt and fluorescein 27). As a general trend, rhodamine-based dyes are loaded with higher efficiency, when compared with BODIPY and fluorescein dyes. Between the rhodamine-based dyes, their charge and the solvent in which the loading process is carried out play important roles for the amount of cargo that can be loaded into the materials. The delivery experiments carried out in PBS buffer at pH 7.4 reveal for all the materials that anionic dyes are more efficiently released compared to their neutral or cationic counterparts. The overall best performance is achieved with the negatively charged sulforhodamine B dye in acetonitrile. This material also shows a high delivery degree in PBS.

Mix-&-Read Determination of Mercury(II) at Trace Levels with Hybrid Mesoporous Silica Materials Incorporating Fluorescent Probes by a Simple Mix-&-Load Technique.

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 für Materialforschung und -prüfung (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. Read the full text of their Full Paper at https://doi.org/10.1002/open.201800111.

Mix-&-Read Determination of Mercury(II) at Trace Levels with Hybrid Mesoporous Silica Materials Incorporating Fluorescent Probes by a Simple Mix-&-Load Technique.

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.

Mix-&-Read Determination of Mercury(II) at Trace Levels with Hybrid Mesoporous Silica Materials Incorporating Fluorescent Probes by a Simple Mix-&-Load Technique.

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.

Optical pH Sensor Covering the Range from pH 0-14 Compatible with Mobile-Device Readout and Based on a Set of Rationally Designed Indicator Dyes.

In this work, a family of pH-responsive fluorescent probes has been designed in a rational manner with the aid of quantum chemistry tools, covering the entire pH range from 0-14. Relying on the boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) core, all the probes as well as selected reference dyes display very similar spectroscopic properties with ON-OFF fluorescence switching responses, facilitating optical readout in simple devices used for detection and analysis. Embedding of the probes and reference dyes into hydrogel spots on a plastic strip yielded a test strip that reversibly indicates pH with a considerably small uncertainty of ∼0.1 pH units. These strips are not only reusable but, combined with a 3D-printed case that can be attached to a smartphone, the USB port of which drives the integrated LED used for excitation, allows for autonomous operation in on-site or in-the-field applications; the developed Android application software ("app") further simplifies operation for unskilled users.

Probing local pH-based precipitation processes in self-assembled silica-carbonate hybrid materials.

Crystallisation of barium carbonate in the presence of silica can lead to the spontaneous assembly of highly complex superstructures, consisting of uniform and largely co-oriented BaCO3 nanocrystals that are interspersed by a matrix of amorphous silica. The formation of these biomimetic architectures (so-called silica biomorphs) is thought to be driven by a dynamic interplay between the components, in which subtle changes of conditions trigger ordered mineralisation at the nanoscale. In particular, it has been proposed that local pH gradients at growing fronts play a crucial role in the process of morphogenesis. In the present work, we have used a special pH-sensitive fluorescent dye to directly trace these presumed local fluctuations by means of confocal laser scanning microscopy. Our data demonstrate the existence of an active region near the growth front, where the pH is locally decreased with respect to the alkaline bulk solution on a length scale of few microns. This observation provides fundamental and, for the first time, direct experimental support for the current picture of the mechanism underlying the formation of these peculiar materials. On the other hand, the absence of any temporal oscillations in the local pH - another key feature of the envisaged mechanism - challenges the notion of autocatalytic phenomena in such systems and raises new questions about the actual role of silica as an additive in the crystallisation process.

Selective, sensitive, and rapid analysis with lateral-flow assays based on antibody-gated dye-delivery systems: the example of triacetone triperoxide.

Set them free: Brightly fluorescent indicators that are loaded into mesoporous silica nanoparticle carriers, capped with bulky antibodies, are released into the lateral flow of a test strip upon analyte arrival. Integration of the system into a rapid, simple flow test with fluorescence readout is applied for the selective and sensitive determination of the presence of triacetone triperoxide (TATP) as a prototype small-molecule analyte (see figure).

Fluorinated Boron-Dipyrromethene (BODIPY) Dyes: Bright and Versatile Probes for Surface Analysis.

A family of bright boron-dipyrromethene-type fluorophores with a high number of fluorine atoms (F-BODIPYs) has been developed and characterized by X-ray crystallography and optical spectroscopy. The introduction of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl and pentafluorophenyl moieties significantly enhances the photostability of such dyes, yielding for instance photostable near-infrared (NIR) fluorophores that show emission maxima>750 nm, when the BODIPY's π system is extended with two (dimethylamino)styryl and (dimethylamino)naphthastyryl moieties, or green-emitting BODIPYs with fluorescence quantum yields of unity. When equipped with a suitable group that selectively reacts for instance with amines, F-BODIPYs can be used as potent dual labels for the quantification of primary amino groups on surfaces by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and fluorescence, two powerful yet complementary tools for the analysis of organic surface functional groups. The advantage of reactive F-BODIPYs is that they allow a fast and non-destructive mapping of the labelled supports with conventional fluorescence scanners and a subsequent quantification of selected areas of the same sample by the potentially traceable XPS technique. The performance is exemplarily shown here for the assessment of the amino group density on SiO2 supports, one of the most common reactive silica supports, in particular, for standard microarray applications.

A highly fluorescent pH sensing membrane for the alkaline pH range incorporating a BODIPY dye.

A robust and re-usable dipstick-type fluorescent pH sensor for the alkaline pH range was developed by embedding a brightly fluorescent boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dye bearing an acidic phenol moiety into a polyurethane matrix immobilized on a 3D epoxy-functionalized polymer support. The sensor strip has a dynamic working range of pH 10.0-13.1, i.e., operates in strongly basic media where pH glass electrodes can suffer from alkaline errors, and tolerates a high electrolyte background such as simulated seawater and sewage. This work describes the preparation of the sensing material and provides insight into the features that a hydrogel sensing membrane can bestow on an embedded pH-responsive dye by means of optical spectroscopic investigations.

Silica nanoparticles functionalised with cation coordination sites and fluorophores for the differential sensing of anions in a quencher displacement assay (QDA).

In conjunction with quenching metal ions, silica nanoparticles carrying terpyridine coordination sites and sulforhodamine B signalling units were employed for the differential fluorometric recognition of anions.

Nanoscopic optical sensors based on functional supramolecular hybrid materials.

This review highlights how the combination of supramolecular principles and nanoscopic solid structures enables the design of new hybrid sensing ensembles with improved sensitivity and/or selectivity and for the targeting of analytes for which selectivity is hard to achieve by conventional methods. Such ideas are bridging the gap between molecules, materials sciences and nanotechnology. Relevant examples will be detailed, taking into account functional aspects such as (1) enhanced coordination of functionalized solids, (2) enhanced signalling through preorganization, (3) signalling by assembly-disassembly of nanoscopic objects, (4) biomimetic probes utilizing discrimination by polarity and size and (5) distinct switching and gating protocols. These strategies are opening new prospects for sensor research and signalling paradigms at the frontier between nanotechnology, smart materials and supramolecular chemistry.