J- vs. H-type assembly: pentamethine cyanine (Cy5) as a near-IR chiroptical reporter

The DNA-enabled dimerization of pentamethine cyanine (Cy5) dyes was studied by optical methods. The value of cyanine as a chiroptical reporter using a monomer-to-dimer switch is demonstrated. The specific shape of the CD signal and its high intensity are a result of J-type assembly

Stability of Rhodamine Lactone Cycle in Solutions: Chain–Ring Tautomerism, Acid–Base Equilibria, Interaction with Lewis Acids, and Fluorescence

The equilibrium between different tautomers that can be colored or colorless is an important feature for rhodamine dyes. Presently, this phenomenon is mostly discussed for rhodamine B. Herein, we studied the tautomerism and acid–base dissociation (HR+ ⇄ R + H+) of a set of rhodamines in organic media. Form R is an equilibrium mixture of the colored zwitterion R± and colorless lactone R0. Absorption spectra in 90 mass% aqueous acetone reflects the correlation between the dyes structure and the equilibrium constant, KT = [R0]/[R±]. Increase in the pKa value on transferring from water to organic solvents confirms the highly polar character of the R± tautomer. To reveal the role of the solvent nature, the tautomerism of an asymmetrical rhodamine, 2-(12-(diethyliminio)-2,3,5,6,7,12-hexahydro-1H-chromeno[2,3-f]pyrido[3,2,1-ij]quinolin-9-yl)benzoate, was examined in 14 media. This chain–ring tautomerism is an intramolecular acid–base reaction; the central carbon atom acts as a Lewis acid. The interaction with other Lewis acids, Li+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and La3+, results in rupture of lactone cycle. In polar solvents, lactones undergo photocleavage resulting in formation of highly fluorescent R±, whereas the blue fluorescence and abnormally high Stokes shift in low-polar media may be explained either by another photoreaction or by spiroconjugation and charge transfer in the exited state

Chem Commun (Camb)

A rational design of squaraine dyes with lipophilic and zwitterionic groups tunes cell entry, allowing for selective far-red/near-infrared imaging of plasma membrane vs. endoplasmic reticulum. They exhibit up to 110-fold fluorescence enhancement in biomembranes and enable cellular imaging at 1 nM concentration, which make them the brightest membrane probes to date