Issue 31, 2018

Exploration of biocompatible AIEgens from natural resources

Abstract

Luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIEgens) characteristics have been well developed and applied in various areas such as bio-imaging, theranostics, organic photoelectronics and chemo/bio sensors. However, most of the reported AIEgens suffer from the disadvantages of complex organic synthesis and high cost, as well as being environmentally unfriendly and hard to degrade, which have largely limited their real applications. In this work, we discovered berberine chloride, a natural isoquinoline alkaloid isolated from Chinese herbal plants, as an unconventional rotor-free AIEgen with bright solid-state emission and water-soluble characteristics. Single crystal structure analysis and optical property, viscosity, and host–guest interaction studies suggested that intramolecular vibration and twisted intramolecular charge transfer were responsible for the AIE phenomenon of berberine chloride. Moreover, berberine chloride was biocompatible and could specifically target lipid droplets in a fluorescence turn-on and wash-free manner, demonstrating the great potential of natural products as promising AIE probes.

Graphical abstract: Exploration of biocompatible AIEgens from natural resources

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
10 Apr 2018
Accepted
28 Jun 2018
First published
29 Jun 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 6497-6502

Exploration of biocompatible AIEgens from natural resources

Y. Gu, Z. Zhao, H. Su, P. Zhang, J. Liu, G. Niu, S. Li, Z. Wang, R. T. K. Kwok, X. Ni, J. Sun, A. Qin, Jacky W. Y. Lam and B. Z. Tang, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 6497 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC01635F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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