Issue 24, 2024

Cyclodextrin as a water-soluble host of azobenzene-based pH probe enables long-term monitoring

Abstract

Azobenzene-based probes have been widely used in biosensing, bioimaging and nanomedicine; however, their water solubility was not good enough, especially for long-term processes. To address the problem, cyclodextrins (CDs) were utilized as water-soluble hosts to facilitate the dispersion of azo molecules separately in the aqueous solution, which avoided aggregation to improve water solubility. In addition, an azobenzene-based pH probe was developed to serve as a model molecule to investigate the influence on responsive performance after host–guest interaction. Compared with α-and β-CD, γ-CD with the biggest cavity size and weakest host–guest interaction displayed the best improvement on water solubility and minimized influence on the pH-responsive performance, providing a universal approach to improve the water solubility of azobenzene-based probes while with a minimal negative effect on the responsive performance, which will be of interest to researchers in the fields of supramolecular chemistry, materials science and nanotechnology.

Graphical abstract: Cyclodextrin as a water-soluble host of azobenzene-based pH probe enables long-term monitoring

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Mar 2024
Accepted
20 May 2024
First published
20 May 2024

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024,12, 8777-8782

Cyclodextrin as a water-soluble host of azobenzene-based pH probe enables long-term monitoring

W. Lv, C. Wang, L. Ji, T. Deng, S. Yang, T. Zhu, S. Liu and Q. Zhao, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024, 12, 8777 DOI: 10.1039/D4TC01173B

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