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The growing numbers related to plastic pollution are impressive, with ca. 70 % of produced plastic (>350 tonnes/year) being indiscriminately wasted in the environment. The most dangerous forms of plastic pollution for biota and human health are micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs), which are ubiquitous and more bioavailable. Their elimination is extremely difficult, but the first challenge is their detection since existing protocols are unsatisfactory for microplastics and mostly absent for nanoplastics. After a discussion of the state of the art for MNPs detection, we specifically revise the techniques based on photoluminescence that represent very promising solutions for this problem. In this context, Nile Red staining is the most used strategy and we show here its pros and limitations, but we also discuss other more recent approaches, such as the use of fluorogenic probes based on perylene-bisimide and on fluorogenic hyaluronan nanogels, with the added values of biocompatibility and water solubility.

Microplastics (MP) are micrometric plastic particles present in drinking water, food and the environment that constitute an emerging pollutant and pose a menace to human health. Novel methods for the fast detection of these new contaminants are needed. Fluorescence-based detection exploits the use of specific probes to label the MP particles. This method can be environmentally friendly, low-cost, easily scalable but also very sensitive and specific. Here, we present the synthesis and application of a new probe based on perylene-diimide (PDI), which can be prepared in a few minutes by a one-pot reaction using a conventional microwave oven and can be used for the direct detection of MP in water without any further treatment of the sample. The green fluorescence is strongly quenched in water at neutral pH because of the formation dimers. The ability of the probe to label MP was tested for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The probe showed considerable selectivity to PVC MP, which presented an intense red emission after staining. Interestingly, the fluorescence of the MP after labeling could be detected, under excitation with a blue diode, with a conventional CMOS color camera. Good selectivity was achieved analyzing the red to green fluorescence intensity ratio. UV–Vis absorption, steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence anisotropy, fluorescence wide-field and confocal laser scanning microscopy allowed elucidating the mechanism of the staining in detail.

The authors thank the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/20072013)/ERC grant agreement no 340863 and ERC PoC LACRYS (837874) as well as Junta de Andalucia for financing the project P18-FR-5008. HC thanks the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG for financial support of the work on Biomorphs (CO 194/28-1). M.M., A.M., and A.M.-P. thank MIUR, (PRIN 2017) 2017E44A9P. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL., Photochemical activation is proposed as a general method for controlling the crystallization of sparingly soluble carbonates in space and time. The photogeneration of carbonate in an alkaline environment is achieved upon photo-decarboxylation of an organic precursor by using a conventional 365 nm UV LED. Local irradiation was conducted focusing the LED light on a 300 μm radius spot on a closed glass crystallization cell. The precursor solution was optimized to avoid the precipitation of the photoreaction organic byproducts and prevent photo-induced pH changes to achieve the formation of calcium carbonate only in the corresponding irradiated area. The crystallization was monitored in real-time by time-lapse imaging. The method is also shown to work in gels. Similarly, it was also shown to photo-activate locally the formation of barium carbonate biomorphs. In the last case, the morphology of these biomimetic structures was tuned by changing the irradiation intensity., European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/20072013)/ERC grant 340863, ERC PoC LACRYS 837874, Junta de Andalucia P18-FR-5008, German Research Foundation (DFG) CO 194/28-1, Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), Research Projects of National Relevance (PRIN) 2017E44A9P, Projekt DEAL

C60@lysozyme showed significant visible light-induced singlet oxygen generation in water, indicating the potential of this hybrid as an agent for photodynamic therapy. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration generated by C60@lysozyme during irradiation depends on the light source, the irradiation time and the concentration of the hybrid. C60@lysozyme significantly reduced the HeLa cell viability in response to visible light irradiation. The generation of H2O2, due to the photoactivity of C60@lysozyme, causes cell death via easy permeation of hydrogen peroxide through the cell membrane and activation of endogenous ROS production.

Quercetin, a flavonoid widely diffused in fruits and vegetables, is known for its good pharmacological qualities, such as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In this work, we loaded quercetin on gelatin films with the aim to develop materials with tailored anti-oxidant, mechanical and stability properties. To this purpose, gelatin films at increasing flavonoid content were prepared using two different solvents, namely H2O/EtOH (EtOH films) and DMSO (DMSO films). Quercetin content increased up to about 3.8 and 1.8 wt% in DMSO and EtOH films, respectively. The use of DMSO as solvent prevents the partial regain of collagen triple helix structure during gelling of gelatin sols and results in remarkable extensibility of the films. At variance, EtOH films display X-ray diffraction patterns and DSC plots in agreement with the presence of triple helix structure, and exhibit reduced swelling and increasing mechanical properties on increasing quercetin content. Moreover, their values of denaturation enthalpy indicate the presence of chemical interaction between the flavonoid and gelatin, which can be responsible of their lower quercetin release in PBS in comparison to DMSO films. The flavonoid release is sustained for both series of films and occurs through anchorage to gelatin nanoparticles. Moreover, both DMSO and EtOH functionalized films exhibit relevant anti-oxidant properties, in agreement with their RSA levels, which are comparable to that of pure quercetin.

Fluorescence is a powerful tool for mapping biological events in real-time with high spatial resolution. Ultra-bright probes are needed in order to achieve high sensitivity: these probes are typically obtained by gathering a huge number of fluorophores in a single nanoparticle (NP). Unfortunately this assembly produces quenching of the fluorescence because of short-range intermolecular interactions. Here we demonstrate that rational structural modification of a well-known molecular fluorophore N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl) (NBD) produces fluorophores that self-assemble in nanoparticles in the biocompatible environment without any dramatic decrease of the fluorescence quantum yield. Most importantly, the resulting NP show, in an aqueous environment, a brightness which is more than six orders of magnitude higher than the molecular component in the organic solvent. Moreover, the NP are prepared by nanoprecipitation and they are stabilized only via non-covalent interaction, they are surprisingly stable and can be observed as individual bright spots freely diffusing in solution at a concentration as low as 1 nM. The suitability of the NP as biocompatible fluorescent probes was demonstrated in the case of HeLa cells by fluorescence confocal microscopy and MTS assays.

Protein aggregation is a complex physiological process, primarily determined by stress-related factors revealing the hidden aggregation propensity of proteins that otherwise are fully soluble. Here we report a mechanism by which glycolytic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase of Arabidopsis thaliana (AtGAPC1) is primed to form insoluble aggregates by the glutathionylation of its catalytic cysteine (Cys149). Following a lag phase, glutathionylated AtGAPC1 initiates a self-aggregation process resulting in the formation of branched chains of globular particles made of partially misfolded and totally inactive proteins. GSH molecules within AtGAPC1 active sites are suggested to provide the initial destabilizing signal. The following removal of glutathione by the formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond between Cys149 and Cys153 reinforces the aggregation process. Physiological reductases, thioredoxins and glutaredoxins, could not dissolve AtGAPC1 aggregates but could efficiently contrast their growth. Besides acting as a protective mechanism against overoxidation, S-glutathionylation of AtGAPC1 triggers an unexpected aggregation pathway with completely different and still unexplored physiological implications.

Bottom-up self-assembly of simple molecular compounds is a prime pathway to complex materials with interesting structures and functions. Coupled reaction systems are known to spontaneously produce highly ordered patterns, so far observed in soft matter. Here we show that similar phenomena can occur during silica-carbonate crystallization, the emerging order being preserved. The resulting materials, called silica biomorphs, exhibit non-crystallographic curved morphologies and hierarchical textures, much reminiscent of structural principles found in natural biominerals. We have used a fluorescent chemosensor to probe local conditions during the growth of such self-organized nanostructures. We demonstrate that the pH oscillates in the local microenvironment near the growth front due to chemical coupling, which becomes manifest in the final mineralized architectures as intrinsic banding patterns with the same periodicity. A better understanding of dynamic autocatalytic crystallization processes in such simple model systems is key to the rational development of advanced materials and to unravel the mechanisms of biomineralization., This work was funded by the European Research Council (European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, grant no. 340863) and the Spanish MINECO grant CGL2010-16882 (co-funded by FEDER)

In conventional fluorescent chemosensors, the recognition of the target by the receptor unit affects the fluorescence properties of a single covalently coupled fluorescent moiety. Here we show for the first time that when a suitable TSQ derivative is densely grafted onto the surface of preformed silica nanoparticles electronic interactions between the individual chemosensor units enable the free units to recognize the state of the surrounding complexed ones. As a result, the fluorescence transduction is not limited to the local site where binding occurs, but it involves a wider region of the fluorophore network that is able to transfer its excitation energy to the complexed units. Such behavior leads to an amplification of the fluorescence signal. What we report here is the first example of amplification in the case an off-on chemosensor due to its organization onto the surface of silica nanoparticles. We also describe a simple general model to approach amplification in multifluorophoric systems based on the localization of the excited states, which is valid for assemblies such as the supramolecular ones where molecular interactions are weak and do not significantly perturb the individual electronic states. The introduction of an amplification factor f in particular allows for a simple quantitative estimation of the amplification effects.

Films based on TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully used as sensing elements in chemical sensors. TiO2 colloidal suspensions can be obtained by spontaneous hydrolysis in acidic solutions of Ti(IV) compounds. The obtained TiO2 NPs can be employed to build up nanostructured films. With the purpose of preparing TiO2-based nanostructured, imprinted materials as sensing elements for piezoelectric sensors, we obtained TiO2 NP dispersions by hydrolyzing potassium titanyl oxalate in the presence of a target analyte (tyrosine). Since morphological properties of the synthesized NPs are known to influence the nanostructured film characteristics, an analytical strategy to characterize such colloidal systems can combine a size-based separation method with spectroscopic analysis to correlate the particle size distribution (PSD) with the particle-target interaction properties able to determine the sensing efficiency. In this work, we present the characterization of colloidal tyrosine-TiO2 NP systems by flow field-flow fractionation (FlFFF) with online, UV/Vis absorption detection and offline fluorescence analysis. FlFFF eliminates the possible contribution of free tyrosine to the absorption and fluorescence properties of the NPs. FlFFF also fractionates NPs on a size basis. Particle size distribution (PSD) profiles of the fractionated NPs are then obtained by conversion of the multi-wavelength UV/Vis fractograms. Size of the fractionated NPs is finally related to fluorescence properties of the collected NPs fractions. Good correlation between the fluorescence intensity, which is proportional to the tyrosine uptake, and the FlFFF-based, NP mass-size frequency distribution finally confirms the existence of tyrosine-TiO2 NP interaction.

Derivatives of 8-hydroxyquinoline were used as model compounds to probe the pathways of non-radiative relaxation of fluorophores in two fluorescent chemosensors. Results suggest that both photo-induced proton transfer and photo-induced electron transfer contribute to quenching the fluorescence of the chemosensors. Crystal structures of an 8-hydroxyquinoline-containing chemosensor complexed to various metal ions indicate that a proton shift occurs concomitant with complex formation. This proton shift precludes both photo-induced proton and electron transfer allowing fluorescence emission from chemosensor-metal ion complexes.

Two new fluorescent chemosensors for heavy metal ions have been synthesised and their photophysical properties have been investigated. They present a pyridyl-thioether-based binding site and the anthracene moiety as a chromophore. In the experimental conditions used, no evidence is found for the formation of complexes with Pb2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, and Ag+ ions. On the contrary, in acetonitrile solutions both ligands strongly bind Cu2+ and Hg2+ cations according to a 1:1 and a 1:2 (metal:ligand) stoichiometry. In these complexes, the intense luminescence typical of anthracene derivatives is almost completely quenched and this phenomenon can be mainly attributed to an intraligand electron transfer process from the anthracene chromophore to the complexed pyridine. These results are of interest for the development of new chemosensors for the design of efficient electronic tongues for the detection of transition metal ions.

Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) is usually benchmarked by evaluating how the vertical excitation energies computed by using different exchange-correlation (XC) functionals compare with the maximum of the absorption spectra. However, the latter does not necessarily coincide with the vertical energies because it is affected by the vibronic band structure that has to be properly taken into account. In this work, we have evaluated the performance of several functionals belonging to different families in reproducing the vibronic structure (band shape) of four 7-aminocoumarin molecules of technological interest, whose spectra have been recorded in methylcyclohexane and acetonitrile solvents. In order to compare the computed vibronic spectra with the experimental ones in the most consistent way, the effect of temperature, often neglected, was also taken into account. We have found that no single functional provides simultaneously accurate band positions and shapes, but the combination of ?B97X vibronic couplings with PBE0 vertical energies can lead to very satisfactory results. In addition to the assessment of XC functionals, several adiabatic and vertical models proposed in the literature to compute vibrationally resolved electronic spectra have been tested and validated with respect to experiments. On these grounds, the adiabatic Hessian model has been used to perform a complete analysis of the ?B97X/PBE0 vibronic transitions contributing to the final band shapes of the investigated aminocoumarin molecules.

Fiat lux on alcohols: Molecular-level resolution was achieved for the detection of short-chain alcohols in the vapor phase using a fluorescent cavitand sensor. The transduction mechanism, activated exclusively by the complexation mode, is provided by the change of the electronic density on the fluorophore caused by the formation of an intracavity hydrogen bond between the cavitand P-O and the alcohol OH group.

The electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of doped silica nanoparticles (DSNPs), prepared by a reverse microemulsion method that leads to covalent incorporation of the Ru(bpy)(3)(2+), was investigated in acetonitrile and aqueous buffers. The emission was produced for the first time by cation-anion direct annihilation, and the position of ECL maxima indirectly allowed estimation of the E(1/2,IOx) and E(1/2,IRed) potentials for Ru(bpy)(3) inside DSNPs. The weak ECL emission is most likely generated by an intrananoparticle ruthenium unit annihilation rather than by the electron transfer between a reduced and oxidized DSNP due to the very low diffusivities of the nanoparticles. Thiol-terminated DSNPs were self-assembled on gold substrates, forming compact and stable monolayers which mimic probe-target assays with DSNPs as labels. The ECL intensity obtained by such functionalized substrates in aqueous media, using tripropylamine (TPrA) as coreactant, was surprisingly increased with respect to direct electrochemical oxidation because of the ability of oxidized TPrA to diffuse within the DSNPs structure and reach a higher number of emitting units with respect to direct electron tunneling. The experimental results have been explained by proposing a basic physical-chemical model which supports evaluation of the number of redox-active centers per nanoparticle. In the model the contrasting effects of increased luminescence quantum yield and decreased diffusion coefficient with respect to free (i.e., not bound within the silica structure) emitting molecules were taken into account. This allows, in principle, optimizing the ECL emission intensity as a function of DSNP size, doping material, charge, doping level, supporting electrolyte, electrode material, and solvent. Finally, it is worth noting that this study has provided a more than 1000-fold increase of the ECL signal of a chemically and electrochemically stable DSNP compared to that of a single dye, suggesting that use of this kind of nanostructures as luminescent labels represents a very promising system for ultrasensitive bioanalysis.

The low quantum yield of luminescence in the NIR region of small (1.8 nm) gold nanoparticles stabilized with triphenylphosphine (TPP) increases by at least 2 orders of magnitude when TPP is replaced with a pyrene derivative. Very efficient energy transfer from the bound fluorophores to the gold core was observed, leading to a strong sensitized emission.

The coordination chemistry of the new pyridine-based, N2S2-donating 12-membered macrocycle 2,8-dithia-5-aza-2,6-pyridinophane (L1) towards Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), and Pb(II) has been investigated both in aqueous solution and in the solid state. The protonation constants for L1 and stability constants with the aforementioned metal ions have been determined potentiometrically and compared with those of ligand L2, which contains a N-aminopropyl side arm. The measured values show that Hg(II) in water has the highest affinity for both ligands followed by Cu(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II). For each metal ion considered, 1:1 complexes with L1 have also been isolated in the solid state, those of Cu(II) and Zn(II) having also been characterised by X-ray crystallography. In both complexes L1 adopts a folded conformation and the coordination environments around the two metal centres are very similar: four positions of a distorted octahedral coordination sphere are occupied by the donor atoms of the macrocyclic ligand, and the two mutually cis-positions unoccupied by L1 accommodate monodentate NO3- ligands. The macrocycle L1 has then been functionalised with different fluorogenic subunits. In particular, the N-dansylamidopropyl (L3), N-(9-anthracenyl)methyl (L4), and N-(8-hydroxy-2-quinolinyl)methyl (L5) pendant arm derivatives of L1 have been synthesised and their optical response to the above mentioned metal ions investigated in MeCN/H2O (4:1 v/v) solutions.

Novel dyads in which a porphyrin ring is directly fused through two β-pyrrolic carbons to a BODIPY® moiety have been prepared using a stepwise approach starting from the copper(II) complex of pyrrolo[2,3-c]-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin. Formylation and reaction with 3,5-dimethylpyrrole afforded 8; subsequent BF2 complexation gave the TPP-BODIPY® dyad in reasonable yields. Demetalation in TFA/H2SO4 led to the corresponding free base 12, opening the way to the subsequent preparation of the Zn complex 13. Both 12 and 13 exhibited complex optical spectra with an intensely red-shifted Q-band. Luminescence spectra displayed a very intense band around 700 nm making these species suitable as near-IR dyes and sensors in biological media. Optical analyses of 12, using the INDO/SCI technique, were performed to obtain information to establish the origin of the novel optical properties. These studies showed that the optical properties of 12 cannot be attributed to deformation of the molecular skeleton, but derive from the increased extension of the conjugation between the TPP and BODIPY® π-systems.

The terpy-derived (terpy= terpyridine) ligand 1 has an extended W shape in which the two appended photoactive pyrenyl groups are held apart. On binding of a zinc(II) ion with a terpy group, ligand 1 is converted into complex 2 whereby it adopts a U shape, thus stacking the aromatic units. This structural modification leads to a very pronounced change in photophysical properties: from a highly fluorescent free ligand to a very weakly emitting complex. The W/U structural switching can be reversibly induced by the addition of a competitive tren ligand, which binds and releases a zinc(II) ion under protonation/deprotonation cycles, thus leading to oscillations in light emission. Therefore, the present system performs periodic modulation of optical output through a nanomechanical shape-flipping motion, triggered by metal ion binding and fuelled by acid-base neutralisation energy. Overall, it represents an ion-triggered opto-mechanical supramolecular device.

Enantiomerically pure dimethyl- and diisobutyl-substituted phenazino-18-crown-6 ligands bind metal and ammonium ions and also primary aralkylammonium perchlorates in acetonitrile with high affinity, causing pronounced changes in their luminescence properties. In addition, they show enantioselectivity towards chiral primary aralkylammonium perchlorates. The possibility to monitor the binding process by photoluminescence spectroscopy can gain ground for the design of very efficient enantioselective chemosensors for chiral species. The observed changes in the photophysical properties are also an important tool for understanding the interactions present in the adduct.