Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Alan M. Szalai, Bruno Siarry, Jeronimo Lukin, Sebastian Giusti, Nicolas Unsain, Alfredo Caceres, Florian Steiner, Philip Tinnefeld, Damian Refojo, Thomas M. Jovin, Fernando D. Stefani
Summary: STED-FRET is a method capable of obtaining super-resolved energy transfer images with higher spatial resolution, more accurate quantification of interactions, and suppression of contributions from noninteracting partners.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wei Li, Gabriele S. Kaminski Schierle, Bingfu Lei, Yingliang Liu, Clemens F. Kaminski
Summary: Super-resolution imaging techniques have become popular for visualizing cellular structures with nanometric resolution. This review focuses on the use of fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) as bright and photostable probes for super-resolution imaging. The review provides an overview of different super-resolution methods, discusses their demands on the properties of fluorescent NPs, and reviews the features, strengths, and weaknesses of each NP class. The future outlook and opportunities in material science for the development of probes for multiplexed subcellular imaging with nanometric resolution are also discussed.
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Xiangcheng Sun, Nazanin Mosleh
Summary: Conventional fluorescence microscopy is limited by optical diffraction, resulting in a resolution of about 250-300 nm. To improve resolution, two approaches were developed: spatially patterned excitation and single-molecule localization. Super-resolution imaging relies on bright and accessible fluorescent probes. Carbon dots have been used due to their unique properties. This work focuses on the progress and applications of fluorescent carbon dots as probes for super-resolution imaging.
Article
Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
Sayan Saha, Krishna Sundar Das, Pulak Pal, Soumyajit Hazra, Avik Ghosh, Sukhen Bala, Aswini Ghosh, Abhijit Kumar Das, Raju Mondal
Summary: The researchers successfully designed and synthesized a silver compound that exhibits excellent photocurrent generation and high proton conductivity. The crystal structure and nanoscopic metallogel of the compound induce semiconductive features, resulting in high photoresponse behavior and proton conductivity values.
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Dominic A. Helmerich, Gerti Beliu, Danush Taban, Mara Meub, Marcel Streit, Alexander Kuhlemann, Soeren Doose, Markus Sauer
Summary: This study demonstrates the use of time-resolved detection and photoswitching fingerprinting analysis to determine the number and distance of closely spaced fluorophores within the sub-10-nm range. The study also reveals the impact of resonance energy transfer between fluorophores on the localization probabilities of sub-10-nm fluorescence imaging.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Zhaoyan Yang, Shenfei Zong, Kuo Yang, Kai Zhu, Na Li, Zhuyuan Wang, Yiping Cui
Summary: Researchers have developed a fluorescent probe based on cesium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals, which has a narrow emission spectrum and excellent photostability, enabling super-resolution imaging of cellular microstructures.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yicong Wu, Xiaofei Han, Yijun Su, Melissa Glidewell, Jonathan S. Daniels, Jiamin Liu, Titas Sengupta, Ivan Rey-Suarez, Robert Fischer, Akshay Patel, Christian Combs, Junhui Sun, Xufeng Wu, Ryan Christensen, Corey Smith, Lingyu Bao, Yilun Sun, Leighton H. Duncan, Jiji Chen, Yves Pommier, Yun-Bo Shi, Elizabeth Murphy, Sougata Roy, Arpita Upadhyaya, Daniel Colon-Ramos, Patrick La Riviere, Hari Shroff
Summary: Researchers have enhanced the performance of confocal microscopy using four approaches: developing compact line scanners, combining multi-view imaging, adapting techniques from structured illumination microscopy, and utilizing deep learning. They successfully improved imaging resolution, reduced phototoxicity, and demonstrated these advancements on over 20 different samples.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Huai Chen, Jiang Xu, Yaping Wang, Da Wang, Raquel Ferrer-Espada, Yutong Wang, Jingjian Zhou, Adrian Pedrazo-Tardajos, Mei Yang, Jia-Heng Tan, Xiaoyu Yang, Lei Zhang, Ilya Sychugov, Shoudeng Chen, Sara Bals, Johan Paulsson, Zhenyu Yang
Summary: Fluorescent probes are essential for cell imaging. This study presents a novel method using silicon nanocrystals as probes, which can switch their emission color from red to blue upon contact with amino acids in live cells. These probes disperse only in the cytoplasm and their fluorescence intensity correlates linearly with amino acid concentration, making them promising tools for visualizing and quantifying amino acid-related processes in live cells.
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Gyuwon Byun, Soh-Youn Kim, Min-Woo Choi, Jin-Kyoung Yang, Ji Eon Kwon, Sehoon Kim, Soo Young Park
Summary: Novel organelle-targeting fluorescent probes derived from NTD exhibit high photostability, fluorescence tunability, and organelle specificity with minimal cytotoxicity. These probes demonstrate intracellular differentiation of lysosomes and mitochondria in multi-color confocal imaging and have been successfully applied to super-resolution cell imaging techniques such as STED and SIM.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Anselm F. L. Schneider, Laila S. Benz, Martin Lehmann, Christian P. R. Hackenberger
Summary: Super-resolution microscopy in living cells can be enhanced by the use of engineered cell-permeable and highly fluorescent nanobodies as intracellular targeting agents. These semi-synthetic nanobodies, with bright fluorescent signals achieved through intramolecular photostabilization, have a cleavable cell-penetrating peptide for efficient cellular entry. Their utility has been demonstrated in functional analysis through monitoring cell division and DNA replication via confocal and STED microscopy.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Analytical
Hua Liu, Zhongju Ye, Yanan Deng, Jie Yuan, Lin Wei, Lehui Xiao
Summary: This review describes the basic principles of single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), factors affecting imaging quality, recent achievements in the development of fluorescent probes for SMLM, and challenges and future advances in SMLM for biological applications.
TRAC-TRENDS IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Chenxi Qian, Kun Miao, Li-En Lin, Xinhong Chen, Jiajun Du, Lu Wei
Summary: VISTA is a label-free superresolution method combining sample expansion and vibrational imaging, enabling high-resolution interrogation of protein-rich biological structures in cells and tissues, with a resolution down to 78 nm.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Review
Optics
Mingwei Tang, Yubing Han, Danchen Jia, Qing Yang, Ji-Xin Cheng
Summary: Far-field chemical microscopy, with molecular electronic or vibrational fingerprint information, offers a new perspective for studying three-dimensional biological, material, and chemical systems. Despite the limitation of optics, recent advances in super-resolution techniques have overcome this hurdle, pushing the boundaries of far-field chemical microscopy in terms of spatial resolution. This technique finds applications in various fields including biomedical research, material characterization, environmental study, cultural heritage conservation, and integrated chip inspection.
LIGHT-SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Linjing Fang, Fred Monroe, Sammy Weiser Novak, Lyndsey Kirk, Cara R. Schiavon, Seungyoon B. Yu, Tong Zhang, Melissa Wu, Kyle Kastner, Alaa Abdel Latif, Zijun Lin, Andrew Shaw, Yoshiyuki Kubota, John Mendenhall, Zhao Zhang, Gulcin Pekkurnaz, Kristen Harris, Jeremy Howard, Uri Manor
Summary: Point-scanning imaging systems are widely used for high-resolution cellular and tissue imaging, but optimizing resolution, speed, sample preservation, and signal-to-noise ratio simultaneously is challenging. The use of deep learning-based supersampling, known as point-scanning super-resolution (PSSR) imaging, can mitigate these limitations. PSSR facilitates high-resolution, fast, and sensitive image acquisition with otherwise unattainable resolution.
Review
Cell Biology
Hongxin Li, Wendong Weng, Bin Zhou
Summary: As a powerful genetic tool, site-specific recombinases (SSRs) have been widely used in genomic manipulation to elucidate cell fate plasticity in vivo, advancing research in stem cell and regeneration medicine. However, the low resolution of conventional single-recombinase-mediated lineage tracing strategies has led to controversial conclusions in many scientific questions. This review discusses the recent advances in dual-recombinase-mediated genetic approaches and their applications in cell differentiation, proliferation, and genetic manipulation, highlighting their advantages over single-recombinase systems and their technical limitations.
CELL PROLIFERATION
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Chi Hyun Ryoo, Jongseok Han, Jung-hoon Yang, Kwangmo Yang, Illhun Cho, Seyoung Jung, Sehun Kim, Hyein Jeong, Changhee Lee, Ji Eon Kwon, Illia E. Serdiuk, Soo Young Park
Summary: By introducing substituent groups, efficient blue TADF materials can be developed, exhibiting high external quantum efficiency in OLEDs.
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Hyun-Jun Lee, Abasi Abudulimu, Juan Carlos Roldao, Hyunwoo Nam, Johannes Gierschner, Larry Lueer, Soo Young Park
Summary: A highly efficient photocatalytic system for hydrogen evolution was developed using self-assembled nanoparticles based on an octupolar molecule. The addition of halide ions improved the rate of hydrogen evolution reaction due to the external heavy atom effect enhancing intersystem crossing. The highest hydrogen evolution rate of the system reached 460 mmol/g.h with the presence of iodide ions and a metal co-catalyst. Moreover, the photocatalytic system without any halide ion additives showed remarkable efficiency in hydrogen generation from seawater using stimulated sunlight (apparent quantum yield of about 3.8%).
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Seong Il Kim, Hyeong Ju Kim, Soo Young Park
Summary: In this study, a highly fluorescent zero-dimensional nano-ring supramolecular organic framework (SOF) was designed using CB[8] as the host and a novel bent-shaped cyanostilbene guest. The host-guest complex successfully formed a macrocyclic hexamer and exhibited significantly enhanced fluorescence (phi(F)=68%) compared to the non-assembled monomer (phi(F)=2%). Unlike other SOFs, this 0D SOF could be uniformly dispersed in water without bundling phenomenon.
CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Byung Hak Jhun, Soo Young Park, Youngmin You
Summary: Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is a unique way of emitting light that can be used for visualizing target analytes. CPL sensors can detect changes in an asymmetric environment by altering the polarization direction, magnitude, or peak wavelength of emitted light.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Illia E. Serdiuk, Seyoung Jung, Michal Monka, Chi Hyun Ryoo, Soo Young Park
Summary: In the search for high energy organic materials for blue OLEDs, a tunability of the triplet state localized on phenyl-s-triazines (3LE) was discovered. This tunability, achieved by substitution at s-triazine, plays a key role in achieving fast reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) and high external quantum efficiency (EQE) in OLEDs. By using phenyl-s-triazines with high 3LE energies as electron acceptors, a series of blue TADF emitters were developed. However, the enhanced 3LE-1CT interaction was found to be beneficial for ISC but not for rISC, contradicting the three-state model prediction. Instead, the direct 3CT -> 1CT interaction was found to be crucial for rISC and OLED efficiency. It is concluded that enhancing the 3CT -> 1CT transition should be a novel design rule for blue TADF emitters.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Seung Hwa Hong, Seong Il Kim, Dong Won Kim, Soo Young Park
Summary: We propose a high crystallized small-molecule dopant-free hole transporting material (HTM) called DEG-IDIDF, based on the indolo [3,2-b]indole (IDID) core unit integrated with flexible diethylene glycol (DEG) side chains. The DEG side chains contribute to tight molecular packing and high film crystallinity, enhancing hole mobility. The DEG-IDIDF based PSCs have higher power conversion efficiency (16.60%) compared to the commonly used PEDOT:PSS based PSCs (12.04%) under the same inverted PSC structures. Moreover, the DEG-IDIDF based PSCs exhibit outstanding thermal stability with over 80% initial efficiency after 500 hours of thermal stress at 60 degrees C.
ORGANIC ELECTRONICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Hyunho Park, Illia E. Serdiuk, Soo Young Park
Summary: Designing a metal-free photocatalyst for the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important, but the poor visible light absorption of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) limits their efficiency. By functionalizing GQDs with hexylamine (HA) through the amide bond formation reaction, we synthesized amphiphilic GQD-HA that acts as a photocatalyst and templating surfactant. The composite nanoparticles of GQD-HA and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) photosensitizers show enhanced stability and HER performance due to efficient charge separation and fast charge transfer.
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Seung Hwa Hong, Dong Won Kim, Soo Young Park
Summary: We propose an eco-friendly aqueous process to obtain efficient/stable small molecule organic field effect transistors (OFETs). Penta-ethylene glycol (PEG) side chains were introduced to the rigid backbone structures of indolo[3,2-b]indole(IDID), leading to the formation of PEG-IDIDF. The addition of water as a cosolvent significantly enhances the film crystallinity and molecular stacking orientation of PEG-IDIDF, resulting in improved hole mobility and current on/off ratio for the PEG-IDIDF OFETs processed with ethanol water cosolvent (90:10) ratio.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Dong Won Kim, Kang-Hoon Choi, Seung Hwa Hong, Hyun-Sik Kang, Ji Eon Kwon, Sungjin Park, Byeong-Kwan An, Soo Young Park
Summary: The development of a new concept of hole transporting materials (HTMs) has led to the advancement of high-performing and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Small molecular organic semiconductors, known for their reproducibility and easy synthesis, have been extensively studied for HTM. This research introduces a novel linear-type series of indoloindole (IDID)-based hole transporting materials, consisting of a fluorinated IDID core (IDIDF) and multiple thiophene rings. The structure-property relationship of the IDIDF derivatives is systematically investigated, resulting in the identification of an optimized material that exhibits improved solubility, favorable molecular packing patterns, and superior hole mobility. The champion PSCs using this optimal molecule, IDIDF2, achieve remarkable thermal and moisture stabilities, making them one of the highest performing n-i-p planar device configurations to date.
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Siyang Feng, Liangxuan Wang, Begona Milian-Medina, Alfred J. Meixner, Min Sang Kwon, Soo Young Park, Reinhold Wannemacher, Johannes Gierschner
Summary: The complex photokinetics of donor-acceptor-donor triads with varying flexible spacer lengths were investigated. Both liquid and solid solutions, as well as crystals, were studied using fluorescence spectroscopy and computational analysis. The study revealed dynamic charge-transfer state formation in liquid solutions and fluorescent CT static complexes in solid solutions. It was also found that external stimuli could induce on/off fluorescence switching or change the emission color in films of the triads.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Dojin Kim, Stefan Stoldt, Michael Weber, Stefan Jakobs, Vladimir N. N. Belov, Stefan W. W. Hell
Summary: Disulfonated rhodamines, commonly used in life science and optical microscopy, were previously thought to be impermeable to living cells. This assumption was challenged by using five popular rhodamines combined with a HaloTag (TM) amine (O-2) ligand (x) to successfully label living cells. Three compounds with two negative charges, Rho590-x, Rho565-x, and Rho530-x, showed specific and bright staining in living cells and performed well in STED microscopy. Other probes with one negative charge, prepared by native chemical ligation and esterification, exhibited specific staining and red shifts in absorption and emission bands.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Dong Su Shin, Young Jae Park, Jae Hyeon Lee, Ji-Yeon Kim, Hyunbok Lee, Kitae Kim, Yeonjin Yi, Ji Eon Kwon, Kyunam Lee, Soo Young Park, Sang-Youp Yim, Donghee Park, Dong Ick Son
Summary: In the field of organic display devices, the solution process of organic materials still requires further research in order to achieve simple manufacturing processes and flexible characteristics. In this study, we propose novel small-molecule hole-transporting materials, 3PTZ and 3PXZ, for solution-processed polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). The PLEDs with 3PTZ and 3PXZ as hole transport layers (HTLs) showed improved luminance and quantum efficiency compared to the reference PLED without a HTL. The optimized energy band structure of 3PTZ and 3PXZ HTLs exhibited similar performances regardless of the deposition processes.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C
(2023)
Article
Electrochemistry
Hyunji Park, Yoshiaki Shuku, Jihyun Lee, Kyunam Lee, Dong Joo Min, Byeong-Kwan An, Kuino Awaga, Soo Young Park, Ji Eon Kwon
Summary: Organic electrode materials are suitable for alkali metal batteries due to their unique redox mechanism and flexible molecular structure. In this study, an ortho-isomer of triptycene tribenzoquinone (o-TT) is presented as a universal organic cathode material for alkali metal batteries. By changing the position of the carbonyl group in the benzoquinone units, the redox potentials of TT are enhanced without sacrificing its large specific capacity. o-TT exhibits high energy densities in Li, Na, and K cells due to multi-electron redox reactions and elevated redox potentials. Finally, the cycle stability of o-TT is significantly improved by fabricating composite electrodes with disordered mesoporous carbon (DOMC).
BATTERIES & SUPERCAPS
(2023)
