Yuming Yang,†,§ Qiang Zhao,‡,§ Wei Feng,† and Fuyou Li*,† †Department of Chemistry and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China ‡Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays (KLOEID) and Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210046, P. R. China.

Luminescent chemodosimeters for bioimaging.

Exposure to even very low levels of lead, cadmium, and mercury ions is known to cause neurological, reproductive, cardiovascular, and developmental disorders, which are more serious problems for children particularly. Accordingly, great efforts have been devoted to the development of fluorescent and colorimetric sensors, which can selectively detect lead, cadmium, and mercury ions. In this critical review, the fluorescent and colorimetric sensors are classified according to their receptors into several categories, including small molecule based sensors, calixarene based chemosensors, BODIPY based chemosensors, polymer based chemosensors, DNA functionalized sensing systems, protein based sensing systems and nanoparticle based sensing systems (197 references).

Fluorescent and colorimetric sensors for detection of lead, cadmium, and mercury ions

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cr400546e

Fluorescent Sensors for Measuring Metal Ions in Living Systems

During the past decade, fluorescent chemosensors have become an important research field of supramolecular chemistry and have attracted great attention because of their simplicity, high selectivity and sensitivity in fluorescent assays. In the design of new fluorescent chemosensors, exploration of new sensing mechanisms between recognition and signal reporting units is of continuing interest. Based on different photophysical processes, conventional sensing mechanisms including photo-induced electron transfer (PET), intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), metal–ligand charge transfer (MLCT), twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT), electronic energy transfer (EET), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), and excimer/exciplex formation have been investigated and reviewed extensively in the literature. This tutorial review will mainly focus on new fluorescent sensing mechanisms that have emerged in the past five years, such as aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and CN isomerization, which can be ascribed to fluorescence changes via conformational restriction. In addition, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) has not been well reviewed yet, although a number of chemosensors based on the ESIPT mechanism have been reported. Thus, ESIPT-based chemosensors have been also summarized in this review.

New sensing mechanisms for design of fluorescent chemosensors emerging in recent years

Design strategies for water-soluble small molecular chromogenic and fluorogenic probes.

Gene delivery using dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles as nonviral vectors.

Colorimetric test kit for Cu2+ detection.

A water-soluble "switching on" fluorescent chemosensor of selectivity to Cd2+.

Thiorhodamine-based chemodosimeter A, a disulfide linked dimer, was designed for Hg2+ recognition by virtue of the strong affinity of mercury for sulfur. Spectroscopic results reveal that chemodosimeter A exhibits real-time responses, and high sensitivity and selectivity for Hg2+ in comparison to other cations. These properties are mechanistically ascribed to the transfer from rhodamine spirolactam to the thiazoline-derived open-ring rhodamineviaHg2+ induced desulfurization. The in vitro recognition of Hg2+ in living cells pretreated with A was examined, showing that the concentration of Hg2+ that could be imaged reaches the safety limit for human beings.

Dithiolane linked thiorhodamine dimer for Hg2+ recognition in living cells

A novel visible-light-induced carboperfluoroalkylation of alkenes using perfluoroalkyl iodides and bromides as Rf sources, leading to isoquinoline-1,3-diones, was developed. This method offers rapid entry to perfluorinated isoquinoline-1,3(2H,4H)-diones from N-alkyl-N-methacryloyl benzamides under mild reaction conditions, allowing for the incorporation of a wide variety of perfluorinated groups such as CF3, C3F7, C4F9, C6F13, C8F17, C10F21, and CF2CO2Et.

Ruilong Sheng

Papers

Gene delivery using dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles as nonviral vectors.

Colorimetric test kit for Cu2+ detection.

A water-soluble "switching on" fluorescent chemosensor of selectivity to Cd2+.

Dithiolane linked thiorhodamine dimer for Hg2+ recognition in living cells

Synthesis of Perfluorinated Isoquinolinediones through Visible-Light-Induced Cyclization of Alkenes