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A bis‐triarylborane tetracation (4‐Ar2B‐3,5‐Me2C6H2)‐C≡C−C≡C‐(3,5‐Me2C6H2‐4‐BAr2 [Ar=(2,6‐Me2‐4‐NMe3‐C6H2)+] (24+) shows distinctly different behaviour in its fluorimetric response than that of our recently published bis‐triarylborane 5‐(4‐Ar2B‐3,5‐Me2C6H2)‐2,2′‐(C4H2S)2–5′‐(3,5‐Me2C6H2‐4‐BAr2) (34+). Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction data on the neutral bis‐triarylborane precursor 2 N confirm its rod‐like dumbbell structure, which is shown to be important for DNA/RNA targeting and also for BSA protein binding. Fluorimetric titrations with DNA/RNA/BSA revealed the very strong affinity of 24+ and indicated the importance of the properties of the linker connecting the two triarylboranes. Using the butadiyne rather than a bithiophene linker resulted in an opposite emission effect (quenching vs. enhancement), and 24+ bound to BSA 100 times stronger than 34+. Moreover, 24+ interacted strongly with ss‐RNA, and circular dichroism (CD) results suggest ss‐RNA chain‐wrapping around the rod‐like bis‐triarylborane dumbbell structure like a thread around a spindle, a very unusual mode of binding of ss‐RNA with small molecules. Furthermore, 24+ yielded strong Raman/SERS signals, allowing DNA or protein detection at ca. 10 nm concentrations. The above observations, combined with low cytotoxicity, efficient human cell uptake and organelle‐selective accumulation make such compounds intriguing novel lead structures for bio‐oriented, dual fluorescence/Raman‐based applications.

We report four new luminescent tetracationic bis‐triarylborane DNA and RNA sensors that show high binding affinities, in several cases even in the nanomolar range. Three of the compounds contain substituted, highly emissive and structurally flexible bis(2,6‐dimethylphenyl‐4‐ethynyl)arene linkers (3: arene=5,5′‐2,2′‐bithiophene; 4: arene=1,4‐benzene; 5: arene=9,10‐anthracene) between the two boryl moieties and serve as efficient dual Raman and fluorescence chromophores. The shorter analogue 6 employs 9,10‐anthracene as the linker and demonstrates the importance of an adequate linker length with a certain level of flexibility by exhibiting generally lower binding affinities than 3–5. Pronounced aggregation–deaggregation processes are observed in fluorimetric titration experiments with DNA for compounds 3 and 5. Molecular modelling of complexes of 5 with AT‐DNA, suggest the minor groove as the dominant binding site for monomeric 5, but demonstrate that dimers of 5 can also be accommodated. Strong SERS responses for 3–5 versus a very weak response for 6, particularly the strong signals from anthracene itself observed for 5 but not for 6, demonstrate the importance of triple bonds for strong Raman activity in molecules of this compound class. The energy of the characteristic stretching vibration of the C≡C bonds is significantly dependent on the aromatic moiety between the triple bonds. The insertion of aromatic moieties between two C≡C bonds thus offers an alternative design for dual Raman and fluorescence chromophores, applicable in multiplex biological Raman imaging.

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Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enhancement factors (EF) were evaluated for RNA mononucleotides: adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), guanosine 5'-monophosphate (GMP), cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP) and uridine 5'-monophosphate (UMP), on silver nanoparticles, which differed in shape (nanospheres, nanostars) and stabilizing anionic layer (chlorides, citrates) on the metal surface. In freshly prepared silver colloids the enhanced Raman scattering was observed for all the RNA mononucleotides on the chloride coated silver nanospheres, Ag_Cl nsp (EF ≈ 10 4 ), for AMP only on the citrate coated silver nanospheres, Ag_cit nsp (EF ≈ 10 3 ), while not obtained at all for any of the mononucleotides on the citrate stabilized silver nanostars, Ag_cit nst. Upon aggregation, the SERS activity of all the silver colloids increased, whereby the purine mononucleotides, AMP and GMP, more strongly scattered radiation on Ag_Cl nsp, and the pyrimidine mononucleotides, CMP and UMP, on Ag_cit nsp. Regardless of the silver nanoparticles, the higher EFs were evaluated for AMP and GMP (EF up to 5 × 10 6 ), than for CMP and UMP (EF ≈ 5 × 10 4 ).