Issue 4, 2021

Universal quenching of common fluorescent probes by water and alcohols

Abstract

Although biological imaging is mostly performed in aqueous media, it is hardly ever considered that water acts as a classic fluorescence quencher for organic fluorophores. By investigating the fluorescence properties of 42 common organic fluorophores recommended for biological labelling, we demonstrate that H2O reduces their fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime by up to threefold and uncover the underlying fluorescence quenching mechanism. We show that the quenching efficiency is significantly larger for red-emitting probes and follows an energy gap law. The fluorescence quenching finds its origin in high-energy vibrations of the solvent (OH groups), as methanol and other linear alcohols are also found to quench the emission, whereas it is restored in deuterated solvents. Our observations are consistent with a mechanism by which the electronic excitation of the fluorophore is resonantly transferred to overtones and combination transitions of high-frequency vibrational stretching modes of the solvent through space and not through hydrogen bonds. Insight into this solvent-assisted quenching mechanism opens the door to the rational design of brighter fluorescent probes by offering a justification for protecting organic fluorophores from the solvent via encapsulation.

Graphical abstract: Universal quenching of common fluorescent probes by water and alcohols

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
30 Sept. 2020
Accepted
18 Nov. 2020
First published
19 Nov. 2020
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., 2021,12, 1352-1362

Universal quenching of common fluorescent probes by water and alcohols

J. Maillard, K. Klehs, C. Rumble, E. Vauthey, M. Heilemann and A. Fürstenberg, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 1352 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05431C

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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