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Jie Chen

Bio: Jie Chen is an academic researcher from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. The author has contributed to research in topics: Logic gate & Protein tag. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 7 publications receiving 324 citations.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In highly polar fluorophores, it is shown that aziridinyl dyes even outperform their azetidinyl analogues in aqueous solution, and proposed one simple mechanism that can explain the vulnerability of quantum yield to hydrogen bond interactions in protonic solvents in various fluorophore families.
Abstract: Replacing conventional dialkylamino substituents with a three-membered aziridine ring in naphthalimide leads to significantly enhanced brightness and photostability by effectively suppressing twisted intramolecular charge transfer formation. This replacement is generalizable in other chemical families of fluorophores, such as coumarin, phthalimide, and nitrobenzoxadiazole dyes. In highly polar fluorophores, we show that aziridinyl dyes even outperform their azetidinyl analogues in aqueous solution. We also proposed one simple mechanism that can explain the vulnerability of quantum yield to hydrogen bond interactions in protonic solvents in various fluorophore families. Such knowledge is a critical step toward developing high-performance fluorophores for advanced fluorescence imaging.

211 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Based on a comprehensive comparison of various representative exchange-correlation functionals and solvent formalisms, a reliable and generalizable computational approach is established for modeling TICT formations of popular organic fluorophores with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT).
Abstract: Inhibition of TICT can significantly increase the brightness of fluorescent materials. Accurate prediction of TICT is thus critical for the quantitative design of high-performance fluorophores and AIEgens. TICT of 14 types of popular organic fluorophores were modeled with time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). A reliable and generalizable computational approach for modeling TICT formations was established. To demonstrate the prediction power of our approach, we quantitatively designed a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based AIEgen which exhibits (almost) barrierless TICT rotations in monomers. Subsequent experiments validated our molecular design and showed that the aggregation of this compound turns on bright emissions with ca. 27-fold fluorescence enhancement, as TICT formation is inhibited in molecular aggregates.

115 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work developed a general descriptor (ΔE) for predicting the quantum yield of PET probes, with a threshold value of ~0.6 eV, that is applicable to a wide range of fluorophores, such as BODIPY, fluorescein, rhodamine, and Si-Rhodamine.
Abstract: Photoinduced electron transfer (PET) is one of the most important mechanisms for developing fluorescent probes and biosensors. Quantitative prediction of the quantum yields of these probes and sensors is crucial to accelerate the rational development of novel PET-based functional materials. Herein, we developed a general descriptor (ΔE) for predicting the quantum yield of PET probes, with a threshold value of ∼0.6 eV. When ΔE ∼0.6 eV, the quantum yield is high because of the inhibition of PET. This simple yet effective descriptor is applicable to a wide range of fluorophores, such as BODIPY, fluorescein, rhodamine, and Si-rhodamine. This ΔE descriptor enables us not only to establish new applications for existing PET probes but also to quantitatively design novel PET-based fluorophores for wash-free bioimaging and AIEgen development.

89 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a series of acid-resistant rhodamine spirolactams with accelerated ring-closing reactions from fluorescent xanthyliums to non-fluorescent spiactams, endowing them with good photoswitchable properties even in acidic environments.
Abstract: Rhodamine spirolactam based photoswitches have been extensively applied in super-resolution single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM). However, the ring-opening reactions of spirolactams are cross-sensitive to acid, limiting their photoswitch use to neutral pH conditions. In addition, the ring-closing reactions of spirolactams are environment-sensitive and slow (up to hours), virtually making rhodamine spirolactams caged fluorescent dyes instead of reversible photoswitches in SMLM. Herein, by introducing hydrogen bonds to stabilize spirolactams, we report a series of acid-resistant rhodamine spirolactams with accelerated ring-closing reactions from fluorescent xanthyliums to non-fluorescent spirolactams, endowing them with good photoswitchable properties even in acidic environments. By further substitution of 6-phenylethynyl naphthalimide on the spirolactam, we shifted the photoactivation wavelength into the visible region (>400 nm). Subsequently, we have successfully applied these dyes in labeling and imaging the cell surface of Bacillus subtilis at pH 4.5 using SMLM.

63 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A method for long-term imaging mitochondrial dynamic through the SNAP-tag fluorogenic probe based on 4-azetidinyl-naphthalimide derivatives will offer a new way to monitor dynamic mitochondria in living cells.

26 citations


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The ROS generation ability of MANi-S was suppressed under physiological conditions due to their self-assembly and was significantly recovered in cancer cells and cellular experiments showed that MANI-S still produced a considerable amount of ROS even under severely hypoxic conditions (1% O2) through a type-I mechanism.
Abstract: A novel strategy for designing highly efficient and activatable photosensitizers that can effectively generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) under both normoxia and hypoxia is proposed. Replacing both oxygen atoms in conventional naphthalimides (RNI-O) with sulfur atoms led to dramatic changes in the photophysical properties. The remarkable fluorescence quenching (ΦPL ≈ 0) of the resulting thionaphthalimides (RNI-S) suggested that the intersystem crossing from the singlet excited state to the reactive triplet state was enhanced by the sulfur substitution. Surprisingly, the singlet oxygen quantum yield of RNI-S gradually increased with increasing electron-donating ability of the 4-R substituents (MANI-S, ΦΔ ≈ 1.00, in air-saturated acetonitrile). Theoretical studies revealed that small singlet-triplet energy gaps and large spin-orbit coupling could be responsible for the efficient population of the triplet state of RNI-S. In particular, the ROS generation ability of MANI-S was suppressed under physiological conditions due to their self-assembly and was significantly recovered in cancer cells. More importantly, cellular experiments showed that MANI-S still produced a considerable amount of ROS even under severely hypoxic conditions (1% O2) through a type-I mechanism.

208 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review mainly summarize the latest advancements in enzyme-reactive NIR fluorescent probes from design strategy to biomedical application and presents some challenges and prospects that will be beneficial to innovatively construct new multifunctional fluorescent probes and actively promote their clinical transformation in the future.
Abstract: Near-infrared (NIR) activatable fluorescent probes have been considered to be the effective edge tools for the investigation of cell biology and disease diagnosis because of their outstanding advantages. Related genes involved in tumor genesis and progression regulate the overexpression of certain enzymes. Owing to the distinctive characteristics of quick reaction time and favorable pharmacokinetics, enzyme-reactive NIR optical probes have shown great potential in the diagnosis of tumorigenesis and in image-guided intraoperative surgeries with high signal-to-noise ratios. In this review, we mainly summarize the latest advancements in enzyme-reactive NIR fluorescent probes from design strategy to biomedical application. Specifically, some challenges and prospects in this field are presented at the end of the review, which will be beneficial to innovatively construct new multifunctional fluorescent probes and actively promote their clinical transformation in the future.

168 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The novelty and originality of AIE in the field of photochemistry lies in the creation of functionality by design and in the active control over deactivation pathways.
Abstract: Twenty years ago, the concept of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) was proposed, and this unique luminescent property has attracted scientific interest ever since. However, AIE denominates only the phenomenon, while the details of its underlying guiding principles remain to be elucidated. This minireview discusses the basic principles of AIE based on our previous mechanistic study of the photophysical behavior of 9,10-bis(N,N-dialkylamino)anthracene (BDAA) and the corresponding mechanistic analysis by quantum chemical calculations. BDAA comprises an anthracene core and small electron donors, which allows the quantum chemical aspects of AIE to be discussed. The key factor for AIE is the control over the non-radiative decay (deactivation) pathway, which can be visualized by considering the conical intersection (CI) on a potential energy surface. Controlling the conical intersection (CI) on the potential energy surface enables the separate formation of fluorescent (CI:high) and non-fluorescent (CI:low) molecules [control of conical intersection accessibility (CCIA)]. The novelty and originality of AIE in the field of photochemistry lies in the creation of functionality by design and in the active control over deactivation pathways. Moreover, we provide a new design strategy for AIE luminogens (AIEgens) and discuss selected examples.

155 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a review of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-selective fluorescent and luminescent probes based on metal-coordinated systems is presented, where metal ions play key roles in the probes as an on-off redox switch for photoinduced quenching and as a reaction site with ROS, RNS or luminecenters.

145 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the recent achievements of stimuli-responsive AIEgens in terms of seven most representative types of stimuli including force, light, polarity, temperature, electricity, ion, and pH are summarized.
Abstract: The unique advantages and the exciting application prospects of AIEgens have triggered booming developments in this area in recent years. Among them, stimuli-responsive AIEgens have received particular attention and impressive progress, and they have been demonstrated to show tremendous potential in many fields from physical chemistry to materials science and to biology and medicine. Here, the recent achievements of stimuli-responsive AIEgens in terms of seven most representative types of stimuli including force, light, polarity, temperature, electricity, ion, and pH, are summarized. Based on typical examples, it is illustrated how each type of systems realize the desired stimuli-responsive performance for various applications. The key work principles behind them are ultimately deciphered and figured out to offer new insights and guidelines for the design and engineering of the next-generation stimuli-responsive luminescent materials for more broad applications.

133 citations