Reactive Phenanthrene Derivatives as Markers of Amino Groups in Fluorescence Microscopy of Surface Modified Micro-Zeolite L

Abstract

Two reactive phenanthrene derivatives, 4-(1H phenanthrol [9,10-d] imidazole-2-yl) benzaldehyde (PIB) and 6,9-dimethoxyphenanthro[9,10-c]furan-1,3-dione (PA) with high fluorescent quantum yields were prepared and used as fluorescent marker in fluorescence microscopy. In particular, silane modified μmZeolite-L containing amino group (-NH₂) in the surface were labeled with the phenanthrene derivatives allowing good imaging resolution and spectroscopy measurements. The presence of a large Stokes shift of the probes due to their intramolecular charge-transfer character gives an advantage of the compounds in confocal laser fluorescence microscopy due to easy signal separation in excitation and emission wavelengths. On the other hand, these results open up the possibility of using these probes for visualization of Zeolite-based materials commonly used as catalysts in thermal and photochemical reactions.

Keywords: Fluorescence; Lifetimes; Optical microscopy; Phenanthrene; Zeolite.