title: Enabling the Triplet of Tetraphenylethene to Sensitize the Excited State of Europium(III) for Protein Detection and Time-Resolved Luminescence Imaging.
abstract: A tetraphenylethene (TPE) group that exhibits aggregation-induced emission is incorporated into the ligand of a Eu(III) complex (TPEEu) to sensitize the excited state of Eu(III). In steady-state measurements, TPEEu exhibits weak luminescence when dissolved in aqueous solutions even at a high concentration level, but emits strong fluorescence of TPE and phosphorescence of Eu(III) upon binding with bovine serum albumin. With a delay time of 0.05 ms and a gate time of 1.0 ms in time-resolved measurements, only phosphorescent emission of Eu(III) is observed with a high on/off ratio. Moreover, this probe is successfully used in time-resolved luminescence imaging to eliminate the background signal from biological autofluorescence without a washing process. This work provides a general strategy in designing Ln(III) complexes for detecting a broad range of biological molecules.
authors.affiliation: Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials Department of Chemistry Wuhan University Wuhan 430072 P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zece
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals School of Chemistry Dalian University of Technology Dalian 116024 P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals School of Chemistry Dalian University of Technology Dalian 116024 P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jingli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Optoelectronic Materials Department of Chemistry Wuhan University Wuhan 430072 P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chuluo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: europium complex; luminescence probe; protein detection; time‐resolved imaging