Developmentofsingle-moleculesensingmethodusingspectrallyresolvedsuper-resolutionmicroscopy

Abstract

Recentadvancesinsingle-moleculespectroscopicimagingtechniques,suchasspectrallyresolvedstochasticopticalreconstructionmicroscopy(SR-STORM),havebeeneffectiveforobtainingdetailedspectralinformationatthemolecularlevel.However,itsapplicationforsingle-moleculesensingishighlychallengingowingtoitscomplicatedconfigurationandlimitedspectralinformation.Inthisstudy,wedemonstratedsingle-moleculepolaritysensingbycombininggrating-basedSR-STORMwiththesolvatochromicdye,Nilered.Thespatialandspectralresolutionsofthecustom-builtgrating-basedSR-STORMwereexaminedforvariouscolorrangesoffluorescentdyes,andthisapproachwassuccessfullyappliedforsensingnanoscalelocalpolarityofvariousorganicsolventmoleculesandsurfactantmolecules.Furthermore,wedemonstratedthattheproposedmethodeffectivelydistinguishedthedifferentpolaritiesoffunctionalgroupswithinsurfactantmoleculesatthesingle-moleculelevel.Weanticipatethattheproposedapproachcanbecombinedwithotherchromicmoleculesforapplicationtomanyotherchemicalsystems.