Highly emissive dimethylamino naphthalenyl phenylethene derivatives for visualization of latent fingerprints and imaging of lysosomes.

Organic fluorescent materials have been widely used in various fields including visualization of latent fingerprints and imaging of lysosomes. High-performance organic fluorescent molecules based on simple molecular structures are still limited and highly demanded for high-definition and high-contrast imaging of latent fingerprints and lysosomes. In this work, two organic fluorescent molecules (DANPAN and DANBEN) were developed based on dimethylamino naphthalenyl phenylethene structure. These two molecules have quite different fluorescent properties, and the position of cyano group significantly affects the optical properties of these dimethylamino naphthalenyl phenylethene derivatives. Compound DANPAN shows strong yellow emission in solid state, while compound DANBEN has strong fluorescent emission in organic solutions. In addition to these differences, both compounds have large Stokes shifts and positive solvatochromic properties. Further studies showed that these compounds could be used to display latent fingerprints on various substrate surfaces. The obtained fingerprint images have excellent contrast and high resolution. It is also found that these molecules could specifically stain lysosomes in living cell within short incubation time. This work provides a series of new high-performance organic fluorescent materials with diverse applications. Highly emissive dimethylamino naphthalenyl phenylethene derivatives have been synthesized, which show large Stokes shifts and positive solvatochromic properties. These compounds could be applied for visualization of latent fingerprints and specific localization of lysosomes in living cell imaging. [Display omitted] • Two dimethylamino naphthalenyl phenylethene derivatives are synthesized. • These molecules show large Stokes shifts and positive solvatochromic properties. • These compounds could be applied for visualization of latent fingerprints on various substrate surfaces. • These molecules could be used for specific localization of lysosomes in living cell imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]