Page 16 - Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Proceedings 2017-18

School of Science
Department of Chemistry

aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens), were suggested to be bio-probes as they present opposite
properties to the conventional dyes. In this study, the latest AIEgen, TPE-R, has been synthesized by an elimination
reaction with pyridine and its luminescence has been discussed with UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence intensity.

Supervisor: TANG Benzhong / CHEM Co Supervisor: SUNG Hoi Pang / CHEM
Student: NG Wai Pan / CHEM Course: UROP1100, Spring

Organic dyes with aggregation- induced emission (AIE) are superior to conventional organic dyes which may suffer from
aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) effect. They also enjoy lower cytotoxicity compared with inorganic quantum dots
(QDs) and they are synthetically allowed to have diverse structures for specific purposes. Particularly, AIE dyes are
promising candidates for biological imaging because it can be used at relatively high concentration and it will aggregate
spontaneously. As a result, it may be suitable for long term imaging due to higher photostability. In this report, two
organic dyes with AIE characteristic targeting mitochondria and lipid droplets (LDs) will be discussed. Compound 1 stains
mitochondria and probably exhibit dual functions while compound 2 stains LDs but with low resolution. Both of them
require optimization before they become promising candidates for purpose of biological imaging.

Supervisor: TANG Benzhong / CHEM Co Supervisor: SUNG Hoi Pang / CHEM
Student: PENG Chen / CHEM Course: UROP1100, Fall
UROP2100, Spring

A new UV and blue light turn-on luminogen with aggregation-induced emission property is found. This luminogen has a
novel emission specifically after UV exposure while this luminogen has higher fluorescence efficiency at aggregated state.

Catalytic Synthesis of Organic Molecules
Supervisor: TONG Rongbiao / CHEM
Student: LEE Seungyeon / CHEM Course: UROP1100, Fall

The protoberberine alkaloids are of a pharmacological importance with regard to isoquinoline natural products in that
they are involved in various biological activities with various structures as canadine, berberine, stylopine, corysame, and
corydaline in the plant kingdom. In this research, the model study of the total synthesis of the protoberberine alkaloids
was conducted to confirm if the synthetic path is valid with acceptable yields and to apply the same route to the total
synthesis. The smaller molecule, cycloheptanone was used to synthesize a target molecule with 4 rings.

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