Single-molecule fluorescence articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Near-infrared small molecule dyes are attractive in biophotonics, but generally rely on expanded aromatic structures to achieve this redshift. Here the authors report the use of a ground state antiaromatic strategy for 14 aminofluorene dyes, and their use in imaging kidney injury.

    • Kui Yan
    • , Zhubin Hu
    •  & Fan Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of upconversion electroluminescence remains very low for single-molecule emitters. Here, the authors report over one order of magnitude improvement in the emission efficiency via engineering energy-level alignments for triplet relayed upconversion involving only carrier injection.

    • Yang Luo
    • , Fan-Fang Kong
    •  & Zhen-Chao Dong
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Room temperature phosphorescent materials have potential in a range of applications, but it is challenging to achieve multiple emission and excitation modes. Here, the authors report the development of RTP materials with different emission modes by regulating the aggregation state.

    • Jingxuan You
    • , Xin Zhang
    •  & Jun Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of photochromic systems is an important and growing area of research, in particular for bioactive molecular photoswitches. Here, the authors report on photopharmacological antimitotic agents, operational under visible light, based on a peptide-derived hemipiperazine photochrome.

    • Susanne Kirchner
    • , Anna-Lena Leistner
    •  & Zbigniew Pianowski
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The develop of organic functional materials requires the exploration of the pressure dependent emissive mechanisms of molecular structures, conformations and stacking modes. Here, Tong et al propose a strategy for monitoring the pressure-induced fluorescence under multiple excitation channels.

    • Shuang Tong
    • , Jianhong Dai
    •  & Xinggui Gu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although mature and systematic theories of molecular photophysics have been developed, it is still challenging to endow clusteroluminogens (CLgens) with designed photophysical properties by manipulating through-space interactions. Here, the authors design three CLgens that show multiple emissions and white-light emission in the crystalline state, and emphasize the important role of secondary through-space interactions between the acceptor and non-conjugated donor units.

    • Jianyu Zhang
    • , Parvej Alam
    •  & Ben Zhong Tang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the interaction of single chromophores with nanoparticles remains a challenging task in nanoscience. Here the authors provide insight into the interaction between isolated base-free phthalocyanine molecules and He and Ne nanoclusters in the gas phase using high-resolution two-dimensional spectroscopy.

    • Ulrich Bangert
    • , Frank Stienkemeier
    •  & Lukas Bruder
  • Article
    | Open Access

    .Sensitive detection of weak acoustic signals at nanometer scale is challenging. Here, the authors present an acoustic detection system based on a single molecule as a probe, where frequency and amplitude of acoustic vibrations can be extracted from its minute variations in distance to the surface of a plasmonic gold nanorod.

    • Mingcai Xie
    • , Hanyu Liu
    •  & Yuxi Tian
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing the rigidity of a macromolecule while maintaining solubility is challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate covalent connection of two rigid-rod polymer chains with stiff connectors, leading to rigid ladder structures with well-defined conjugated rails.

    • Stefanie A. Meißner
    • , Theresa Eder
    •  & Sigurd Höger
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular designs improving the performance of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are greatly desired for optoelectronic applications. The authors propose a molecular geometry with donor and acceptor moieties facing each other separated by an anthracene bridge, giving rise to hot exciplex states producing color pure and fast TADF emission.

    • A. Lennart Schleper
    • , Kenichi Goushi
    •  & Alexander J. C. Kuehne
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oligofurans have attracted great attention because of their strong fluorescence, charge delocalization, and increased solubility. Here the authors show a bottom-up modular construction of chemically and structurally well-defined oligo(arylfuran)s by de novo synthesis of α,β′-bifuran monomers and late-stage bromination, stannylation and subsequent coupling reaction.

    • Yang Chen
    • , Pingchuan Shen
    •  & Shifa Zhu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Commonly, large π-conjugated systems facilitate low-energy electronic transitions. Here, the authors demonstrate that the relief of excited-state antiaromaticity of the benzene core leads to large Stokes shifts, and allows the construction of emitters covering the entire visible spectrum without the need of extending π-conjugation.

    • Heechan Kim
    • , Woojin Park
    •  & Dongwhan Lee
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vibronic coupling is a key feature of molecular electronic transitions, but its visualization in real space is an experimental challenge. Here the authors, using scanning tunneling microscopy induced luminescence, resolve the effect of vibronic coupling with different modes on the electron distributions in real space in a single pentacene molecule.

    • Fan-Fang Kong
    • , Xiao-Jun Tian
    •  & J. G. Hou
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Activatable fluorophores are of interest for a wide range of applications but the need for caging groups complicates their development and application. Here, the authors report on a photoactivatable silicon rhodamine derivative and its application in live cell imaging and single-particle tracking.

    • Michelle S. Frei
    • , Philipp Hoess
    •  & Kai Johnsson
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism of the non-radiative recombination in halide perovskite nanocrystals has not been fully understood. Here Gerhard et al. resolve the contributions of individual recombination centers by photoluminescence blinking measurements and identify ion migration as the underlying mechanism.

    • Marina Gerhard
    • , Boris Louis
    •  & Ivan G. Scheblykin
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Super-resolution microscopy with spontaneously blinking dyes is dependent on pH and polarity of the medium. Here the authors introduce a photoactivatable fluxional fluorophore for live cell imaging that allows control over the fraction of spontaneously blinking molecules independently of medium properties.

    • Elias A. Halabi
    • , Dorothea Pinotsi
    •  & Pablo Rivera-Fuentes
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanorobots will likely play a major role in future therapeutic approaches. Here, the authors develop a molecular automaton based on Zinc-BODIPY complexes that can autonomously switch between singlet oxygen generation and fluorescence emission, i.e., therapeutic and diagnostic modes.

    • Ilke S. Turan
    • , Gurcan Gunaydin
    •  & Engin U. Akkaya
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular emitters offer a promising solution for single-photon generation. Here, by exploiting electronic decoupling by an ultrathin dielectric spacer and emission enhancement by a resonant plasmonic nanocavity, the authors demonstrate electrically driven single-photon emission from a single molecule.

    • Li Zhang
    • , Yun-Jie Yu
    •  & J. G. Hou
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesis of small conjugated polymer nanoparticles (Pdots) with bright and stable fluorescence is an active challenge. Here, the authors introduce a strategy to fabricate ultrasmall Pdots with high fluorescence intensity by using twisted, rather than planar, conjugated polymers, lending new insight into the molecular design of Pdots.

    • Hubert Piwoński
    • , Tsuyoshi Michinobu
    •  & Satoshi Habuchi