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The design, synthesis and evaluation of a subphthalocyanine-flipper (SubPc-Flipper) amphiphilic dyad is reported. This dyad combines two fluorophores that function in the visible region (420–800 nm) for the simultaneous sensing of both ordered and disordered lipidic membranes. The flipper probes part of the dyad possesses mechanosensitivity, long fluorescence lifetimes (τ = 3.5–5 ns) and selective staining of ordered membranes. On the other hand, subphthalocyanines (SubPc) are short-lifetime (τ = 1–2.5 ns) fluorophores that are insensitive to membrane tension. As a result of a Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) process, the dyad not only retains the mechanosensitivity of flippers but also demonstrates high selectivity and emission in different kinds of lipidic membranes. The dyad exhibits high emission and sensitivity to membrane tension (Δτ = 3.5 ns) when tested in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) with different membrane orders. Overall, the results of this study represent a significant advancement in the applications of flippers and dyads in mechanobiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their growing popularity in biology to image membrane tension, central design principles of flipper probes have never been validated. Here we report that upon deletion of their primary dipole, from electron-poor and electron-rich dithienothiophenes, absorptions blue-shift, lifetimes shorten dramatically, and mechanosensitivity in cells vanishes not partially, but completely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation of new monodisperse polycrystalline palladium nanoparticles uniformly distributed on the surface of polymers, by simply adding a palladium(ii) solution in water to the polymers, is described. The polymer supported palladium nanoparticles material was used as an efficient portable and reusable catalyst for the stereoselective semihydrogenation reaction of internal alkynes to (Z)-alkenes in green solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the development of new fluorogenic silica nanomaterials that were able to generate fluorescence in the presence of vapours of triacetone triperoxide, TATP, an improvised explosive used in terrorist attacks. The materials worked in a vapour flow of TATP, giving a permanent and strongly fluorescent response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a new fluorogenic polymer capable of detecting the presence of mercury contamination in fish samples. The modified polymer emits blue light when irradiated with UV light proportional to the quantity of mercury, as MeHg+ or Hg2+, present in fish. The quantitative relation between the concentration of mercury in fish and the increase of fluorescence in the polymer in contact with fish samples was confirmed, giving rise to quick and reliable results in the measurements of the presence of mercury in fish using a portable fluorogenic polymeric probe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selected new fluorogenic probes that interact in different ways with Hg 2+ and MeHg + have been prepared and used for the chemical speciation of both cations in aqueous solution as well as in HEK293 cells. The best selective speciation of Hg 2+ and MeHg + has been achieved by in vitro approaches based on fluorogenic probes supported in cultured cells, due to the particular sensitivity of the HEK293 cells to permeation by Hg 2+ , MeHg + and the fluorogenic probes. In particular, MeHg + was selectively detected in cell nuclei by probe JG45.