Significant multiplexing capacity of optical time-domain coding has been recently demonstrated by tuning luminescence lifetimes of the upconversion nanoparticles called ‘τ-Dots’. It provides a large dynamic range of lifetimes from microseconds to milliseconds, which allows creating large libraries of nanotags/microcarriers. However, a robust approach is required to rapidly and accurately measure the luminescence lifetimes from the relatively slow-decaying signals. Here we show a fast algorithm suitable for the microsecond region with precision closely approaching the theoretical limit and compatible with the rapid scanning cytometry technique. We exploit this approach to further extend optical time-domain multiplexing to the downconversion luminescence, using luminescence microspheres wherein lifetimes are tuned through luminescence resonance energy transfer. We demonstrate real-time discrimination of these microspheres in the rapid scanning cytometry, and apply them to the multiplexed probing of pathogen DNA strands. Our results indicate that tunable luminescence lifetimes have considerable potential in high-throughput analytical sciences.

We synthesized five fluorophore–photochrome dyads designed to switch reversibly between nonfluorescent and fluorescent isomers under optical control. These compounds pair an oxazine photochrome to a biphenyl, fluorene, pyrene, coumarin, or cyanine fluorophore in their molecular skeleton and can be prepared in a single step from known precursors in yields ranging from 30 to 63%. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy indicates that the oxazine ring of these compounds opens and closes spontaneously on a millisecond time scale in acetonitrile at ambient temperature. Under these conditions, the fraction of ring-open isomer at equilibrium is negligible in all instances with the exception of the cyanine derivative, which instead is almost exclusively in this form. Absorption and emission spectroscopies demonstrate, however, that the fraction of ring-open isomer is sensitive to solvent polarity and increases with a transition from acetonitrile to methanol. Alternatively, the ring-open isomer can be populated photochemically or trapped with the addition of acid. In both instances, the characteristic absorption and emission bands of the 3H-indolium chromophores, embedded within the ring-open species, can clearly be observed in the visible region. In the case of the coumarin derivative, the brightness of this chromophoric fragment is sufficiently high to permit the imaging of individual molecules with excellent signal-to-noise ratios. In fact, the fluorescence of single fluorophore–photochrome dyads can be activated under the influence of ultraviolet inputs and the resulting species can be localized with nanoscale precision under visible illumination. Indeed, subdiffraction images of polymer nanoparticles, doped with this particular dyad, can be reconstructed with nanoscale resolution. Thus, our operating principles for fluorescence switching at the single-molecule level can offer the opportunity to overcome diffraction and, eventually, lead to the development of an entire family of probes for super-resolution fluorescence imaging.

The photoinduced disconnection of an oxazine heterocycle from a borondipyrromethene (BOD-IPY) chromophore activates bright far-red fluorescence. The high brightness of the product and the lack of autofluorescence in this spectral region allow its detection at the single-molecule level within the organelles of live cells. Indeed, these photoactivatable fluorophores localize in lysosomal compartments and remain covalently immobilized within these organelles. The suppression of diffusion allows the reiterative reconstruction of subdiffraction images and the visualization of the labeled organelles with excellent localization precision. Thus, the combination of photochemical, photophysical and structural properties designed into our fluorophores enable the visualization of live cells with a spatial resolution that is inaccessible to conventional fluorescence imaging.

The photochemical transformations associated with photochromic compounds can be exploited to switch the emission of complementary fluorophores under the influence of optical stimulations. Specifically, fluorescent and photochromic components can be integrated within the same molecular or supramolecular assembly and the significant changes in the stereoelectronic properties associated with the photoinduced interconversion of one component can be designed to modulate the emission intensity and/or wavelength of the other. In particular, the modifications in absorption properties, conjugation, dipole moment, redox potentials and shape of a photochrome can all be transduced effectively into reversible alterations of the emissive behavior of a fluorophore. Furthermore, some of these ingenious mechanisms for fluorescence 1. Photochromism History and DefinitionsThe term "photochromism" was introduced in the early 1950s to indicate the photoinduced and reversible change in color of certain compounds.[1] Since then, the number of publications on photochromism has increased exponentially [a]

A combined experimental-theoretical investigation has revealed that oxazine-based compounds are multiaddressable, multistate, and multifunctional molecular switches exhibiting contrasts of both linear and second-order nonlinear optical properties. The switching properties are particularly large when the substituent is a donor group. In this study, the cleavage of the C-O bond at the junction of the indole and oxazine cycles (of the closed a forms) is acido-triggered, leading to an open form (b(+)) characterized by larger first hyperpolarizabilities (βHRS) and smaller excitation energies than in the closed form. These results are confirmed and interpreted utilizing ab initio calculations that have been carried out on a broad set of compounds to unravel the role of the substituent. With respect to acceptor groups, oxazines bearing donor groups are characterized not only by larger βHRS and βHRS contrast ratios but also by smaller excitation energies, larger opening-induced charge transfer, and reduction of the bond length alternation, as well as smaller Gibbs energies of the opening reaction. Compared to protonated open forms (b(+)), calculations on the zwitterionic open forms (b) have pointed out similarities in the long-wavelength UV/vis absorption spectra, whereas their βHRS values might differ strongly as a function of the substituent. Indeed, the open forms present two NLOphores, the indoleninium-substituent entity and the nitrophenol (present in the protonated open form, b(+)) or nitrophenolate (present in the zwitterionic open form, b) moiety. Then, nitrophenolate displays a larger first hyperpolarizability than nitrophenol and the β tensor of the two entities might reinforce or cancel each other.

[Chemical reaction: See text] Benzotriazole reagents for thioacylation (RCSBt), thiocarbamoylation (RR'NCSBt), aryl/alkoxythioacylation (ROCSBt), and aryl/alkylthiothioacylation (RSCSBt) are synthesized, and their utility is assessed by syntheses of representative heteroaryl thioureas 3a-g, thioamides 15a-s, thionoesters 16a-h, thiocarbamates 17a-e, dithiocarbamates 18a-d, thiocarbonates 19a-c, and dithiocarbonates 20a-c.

The stringent limitations imposed by diffraction on the spatial resolution of fluorescence microscopes demand the identification of viable strategies to switch fluorescence under optical control. In this context, the photoinduced and reversible transformations of photochromic compounds are particularly valuable. In fact, these molecules can be engineered to regulate the emission intensities of complementary fluorophores in response to optical stimulations. On the basis of this general design logic, we assembled a functional molecular construct consisting of a borondipyrromethene fluorophore and a nitrospiropyran photochrome and demonstrated that the emission of the former can be modulated with the interconversion of the latter. This fluorophore-photochrome dyad, however, has a slow switching speed and poor fatigue resistance. To improve both parameters, we developed a new family of photochromic switches based on the photoinduced opening and thermal closing of an oxazine ring. These compounds switch back and forth between ring-closed and -open isomers on nanosecond-microsecond timescales and tolerate thousands of switching cycles with no sign of degradation. In addition, the attachment of appropriate chromophoric fragments to their switchable oxazine ring can be exploited to either deactivate or activate fluorescence reversibly in response to illumination with a pair of exciting beams. Specifically, we assembled three dyads, each based on either a borondipyrromethene or a coumarin fluorophore and an oxazine photochrome, and modulated their fluorescence in a few microseconds with outstanding fatigue resistance. The unique photochemical and photophysical properties of our fluorophore-photochrome dyads can facilitate the development of switchable fluorophores for superresolution imaging and, ultimately, provide valuable molecular probes for the visualization of biological samples on the nanometer level.

The equilibration of two interconverting species with resolved emission translates into ratiometric fluorescence response to temperature.