Rapid membrane-specific AIEgen featuring with wash-free imaging and sensitive light-excited killing of cells, bacteria, and fungi

Abstract

Membrane-specific fluorescence imaging is very significant for understanding the roles of cells or microbes in physiological and pathological processes, and commercial dyes are often limited by their disadvantages of small Stokes shifts, poor water solubility, and aggregation caused quenching (ACQ). However, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) could overcome these shortcomings with high sensitivity, excellent photostability, and biocompatibility. In this paper, an amphiphilic fluorescent probe of C6-BD was designed and synthesized with both AIE and ESIPT characteristics, and it was used to visualize the membrane of cells rapidly with high selectivity, stability, and wash-free operation. In addition, C6-BD has excellent universality for wash-free imaging of bacteria and fungi, and its efficient ROS generation after white light irradiation could be considerably powerful in killing both Gram-positive bacteria and fungi.