Issue 45, 2022

Fluorescence turn-on by photoligation – bright opportunities for soft matter materials

Abstract

Photochemical ligation has become an indispensable tool for applications that require spatially addressable functionalisation, both in biology and materials science. Interestingly, a number of photochemical ligations result in fluorescent products, enabling a self-reporting function that provides almost instantaneous visual feedback of the reaction's progress and efficiency. Perhaps no other chemical reaction system allows control in space and time to the same extent, while concomitantly providing inherent feedback with regard to reaction success and location. While photoactivable fluorescent properties have been widely used in biology for imaging purposes, the expansion of the array of photochemical reactions has further enabled its utility in soft matter materials. Herein, we concisely summarise the key developments of fluorogenic-forming photoligation systems and their emerging applications in both biology and materials science. We further summarise the current challenges and future opportunities of exploiting fluorescent self-reporting reactions in a wide array of chemical disciplines.

Graphical abstract: Fluorescence turn-on by photoligation – bright opportunities for soft matter materials

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
28 sept. 2022
Accepted
25 oct. 2022
First published
26 oct. 2022
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 13280-13290

Fluorescence turn-on by photoligation – bright opportunities for soft matter materials

V. X. Truong, J. O. Holloway and C. Barner-Kowollik, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 13280 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC05403E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements