A sulfonated 9,10-distyrylanthracene derivative with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property is designed and synthesized. It shows a highly sensitive and selective fluorescence enhancement property for bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein detection and quantification. Analysis on the interaction between the probe molecule and BSA reveals the essential role of the hydrophobic cavities of the protein folding structure.
Two 9,10-distyrylanthracene (DSA) derivatives CNDSA and t-BUDSA were designed and synthesized, and their photophysical properties and crystal structures were investigated. Compared to DSA, the maximum emission peaks of the two compounds showed red-shift not only in THF solution, but also in crystals, because the introduction of electron-withdrawing substituents to DSA leads to more dispersion of the electrons in the molecules. The two crystals of CNDSA and t-BUDSA show strong fluores- cence with the efficiency F of 45% and 33%, respectively, which may be resulted from no obvious-interactions between molecules inside the crystal due to the large distance between the two adjacent molecules and nearly no overlap between the central anthracene planes. The analysis of crystal structures of the two compounds indicated that the molecules are arranged in the same conformation and orientation in their crystals, i.e. uniaxially oriented packing crystal, because of the supramolecular interac- tion of CH/ in the two crystals and additional C-H···N interactions in CNDSA.
