title: Ylidenemalononitrile enamines as fluorescent "turn-on" indicators for primary amines.
abstract: Ylidenemalononitrile enamines undergo rapid amine exchange followed by a cyclization with primary amines to yield fluorescent products with emission intensities as high as 900 times greater than the starting materials. After identifying the fluorescent species by X-ray crystallography, we demonstrate that the rate of amine exchange is substrate dependent and that by simple structural variation the fluorescence can be tuned over the entire visible spectrum. We further demonstrate their potential application in biomolecule labeling.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University , Tallahassee, Florida 32306, United States.
authors.forename: Ashley R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Longstreet
authors.forename: Minyoung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Rebecca R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Chandler
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.forename: Naiqian
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Jeremy J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Hrudka
authors.forename: Hedi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mattoussi
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shatruk
authors.forename: D Tyler
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: McQuade