Large Stokes shift fluorophores from meta-substituted zwitterions
David T. Hogan, Alexander R. Krappe, Ralf Feyerherm, Manuela Weber, Ute Resch-Genger, Siegfried Eigler · 2026
Read Large Stokes shift fluorophores from meta-substituted zwitterions by David T. Hogan, Alexander R. Krappe, Ralf Feyerherm, Manuela Weber, Ute Resch-Genger, Siegfried Eigler (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13312548.txt.
Description
David T. Hogan and co-authors report, in a 2026 chemistry study, a small fluorescent molecule with an unusually wide gap between the light it absorbs and the light it emits. Most dye families absorb and emit at close wavelengths, causing self-reabsorption and blocking multi-color sensing from one excitation light, and the usual fix is donor-acceptor charge transfer design.
The team instead placed permanently charged donor and acceptor groups in meta positions on a single benzene ring, a neglected geometry. The resulting zwitterion absorbs ultraviolet light at 375 nanometers and emits yellow-orange at 605 nanometers, a Stokes shift above 10,000 wavenumbers, the largest recorded for such a compound. Calculations credit stronger charge transfer and extra energy shed through structural reshaping after excitation, tied to excited-state antiaromaticity. Extended versions kept the wide shift, suggesting a general design rule.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | David T. Hogan, Alexander R. Krappe, Ralf Feyerherm, Manuela Weber, Ute Resch-Genger, Siegfried Eigler |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 31450 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |