Katarzyna Matczyszyn

• Professor
• Wrocław University of Science and Technology

Proper formulation of systems containing plasmonic and photochromic units, such as gold nanoparticles and azobenzene derivatives, yields materials and interfaces with synergic functionalities. Moreover, gold nanoparticles are known to accelerate the Z-E isomerization of azobenzene molecules in the dark. However, very little is known about the light...

Proper formulation of systems containing plasmonic and photochromic units, such as gold nanoparticles and azobenzene derivatives, yields materials and interfaces with synergic functionalities. Moreover, gold nanoparticles are known to accelerate the Z‐E isomerization of azobenzene molecules in the dark. However, very little is known about the light...

Quantum computing promises exponential advances in information processing, necessitating the development of appropriate materials for implementing quantum qubits and gates. Liquid crystals, known for their electro-optical characteristics and use in displays, have recently received attention as prospective candidates for quantum computing applicatio...

The majority of self-assembled fluorescent dyes suffer from aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), which detrimentally affects their diagnostic and therapeutic effectiveness. While aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active dyes offer a promising solution to overcome this limitation, they may face significant challenges as the intracellular environment...

Recent progress in the design of carbon nanostructures exhibiting strong multiphoton-excited emission opens new pathways to explore the self-organization of lipids found in living organisms. Phospholipid-based lyotropic myelin figures (MFs) are promising materials as simplified models of biomembranes due to their structural resemblance to a multila...

Proper formulation of systems containing plasmonic and photochromic units, such as gold nanoparticles and azobenzene derivatives, yields materials and interfaces with synergic functionalities. Moreover, gold nanoparticles are known to accelerate the Z-E isomerization of azobenzene molecules in the dark. However, very little is known about the light...

Carbon-based dots (CDs) are a novel class of luminescent carbon nanomaterials, attracting much interest as promising alternatives for cadmium-based quantum dots and fluorescent organic dyes. Although different strategies have been...

The study of the effects of external stimuli on lipidic mesophases may enable a better understanding of alterations in biomembranes and improve the design of multilayered lipid structures. Here we demonstrate the influence of pH on the formation of elongated multilamellar assemblies, known as myelin figures (MFs). Polarized light microscopy allowed...

We evaluate the efficacy of antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy (APDT) for inactivating a variety of antibiotic-resistant clinical strains from diabetic foot ulcers. Here we are focused on APDT based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). The wound swabs from ten patients diagnosed with diabetic foot ulcers were collected and 32 clinical strains c...

Nucleotides are organic compounds consisting of a phosphate group, a nitrogenous base, namely adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), or guanine (G), and a sugar, here deoxyribose. The magnitude of the first hyperpolarizability β of these four DNA nucleotides was determined in aqueous solution with the nonlinear optical technique of hyper rayleigh...

Non-invasive imaging of morphological changes in biologically relevant lipidic mesophases is essential for the understanding of membrane-mediated processes. However, its methodological aspects need to be further explored, with particular attention paid to the design of new excellent fluorescent probes. Here, we have demonstrated that bright and bio...

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (APDT) is a promising approach to fight the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance that threatens health care, food security and agriculture. APDT uses light to excite a light-activated chemical (photosensitiser), leading to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Many APDT studies confirm its effica...

Correction for ‘Light-induced in situ chemical activation of a fluorescent probe for monitoring intracellular G-quadruplex structures’ by Marco Deiana et al. , Nanoscale , 2021, 13 , 13795–13808, https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR02855C.

A long-term reusable sensor that provides the opportunity to easily regenerate the active surface and minimize the occurrence of undesired absorption events is an appealing solution that helps to cut down the costs and improve the device performances. Impressive advances have been made in the past years concerning the development of novel cutting-e...

The need for efficient probing, sensing, and control of the bioactivity of biomolecules (e.g., albumins) has led to the engineering of new fluorescent albumins' markers fulfilling very specific chemical, physical, and biological requirements. Here, we explore acetone-derived polymer dots (PDs) as promising candidates for albumin probes, with specia...

The design of two-photon absorbing azobenzene (AB) derivatives has received much attention; however, the two-photon absorption (2PA) properties of bis-conjugated azobenzene systems are relatively less explored. Here, we present the synthesis of six azobenzene derivatives and three bis-azobenzenes substituted (or not) at para position(s) with one or...

The one- and two-photon absorption (1PA and 2PA) properties of three expanded aceneporphyrinoids, 28-thia-, 28-selena- and 28-tellura-2,7-naphthiporphyrin, have been studied. The open-aperture Z-scan technique was used to determine two-photon absorption cross-sections in the near infrared range using an amplified femtosecond laser system. The maxim...

Nanoparticles made of a substance derived from wood, lignin, are gaining interest as a potential material for use in nanotechnology, including such biological applications as photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), which involve the need for the nanoparticles to contain photosensitizers that absorb and emit in...

Herein we describe a novel spinning pump-probe photoacoustic technique developed to study nonlinear absorption in thin films. As a test case, an organic polycrystalline thin film of quinacridone, a well-known pigment, with a thickness in the tens of nanometers range, is excited by a femtosecond laser pulse which generates a time-domain Brillouin sc...

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment, which exploits a photosensitizing drug and light to produce reactive oxygen species that can cause selective damage to the target tissue. The second‐generation photosensitizer 5,10,15,20‐tetrakis(m‐hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (m‐THPC) is a widely used, clinically tested, and commercially available drug wi...

The efficiency of photomobile polymers (PMP) in the conversion of light into mechanical work plays a fundamental role in achieving cutting-edge innovation in the development of novel applications ranging from energy harvesting to sensor approaches. Because of their photochromic properties, azobenzene monomers have been shown to be an efficient mate...

A pump-probe based photoacoustic technique is described for the study of nonlinear absorption in thin films, including opaque ones, based on the retrieval of picosecond acoustic signals first excited in the sample and then detected in a transparent substrate with well-known photo-elastic characteristics. Experimentally, an organic pigment, quinacri...

The use of two-photon absorption (TPA) for such applications as microscopy, imaging, and photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers several advantages over the usual one-photon excitation. This creates a need for photosensitizers that exhibit both strong two-photon absorption and the highly efficient generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), as well as,...

The synthesis and characterization of four new tetracyanobutadiene (TCBD) derivatives (1, 3c and 4b-c) incorporating tosylamido and 4-triphenylamino moieties are reported. Along with those of five closely related or differently branched TCBDs derivatives (2, 3a-b, 4c and 5), their linear and (third-order) nonlinear optical properties were investiga...

The design of artificially engineered chiral structures has received much attention, but the implementation of dynamic functions to modulate the chiroptical response of the systems is less explored. Here, we present a light-responsive G-quadruplex (G4)-based assembly in which chirality enrichment is induced, tuned, and fueled by molecular switches....

Antibacterial photodynamic therapy is a promising treatment for problematic infections caused by bacteria and fungi. Despite its undoubted effectiveness, the ultrastructural mechanism of microbial death remains not fully described and distinct organisms respond to the treatment with different efficacy. For this reason, it was decided to try imaging...

Light-activated functional materials capable of remote control over duplex and G-quadruplex (G4) nucleic acids formation at the cellular level are still very rare. Herein, we report on the photoinduced macrocyclisation of a helicenoid quinoline derivative of binaphthol that selectively provides easy access to an unprecedented class of extended hete...

The novel approach for imaging of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy processes presented in this work is based on transmission electron microscopy methods. With the use of liquid cell, illumination system, and lowered electron dose the successful light-induced in-situ observations on Staphylococcus aureus encapsulated with methylene blue were perfo...

Chiral nanomaterials attract broad attention, as they offer new possibilities of modulation of optical properties and dissymmetry factors outperforming organic materials. Among various nanoparticles, plasmonic bipyramids present numerous advantages as building blocks of chiral nanomaterials (well-defined modulation of optical properties with the mo...

We have elaborated a new preparation method of ternary AgInS2 and alloyed quaternary AgInS2-ZnS nanocrystals which consisted of two consecutive injections of sulfur (S dissolved in oleylamine, OLA) and silver (AgNO3 or Ag2CO3 dissolved in dichlorobenzene, DCB) precursors into a mixture of indium(iii) chloride, zinc stearate and 1-dodecanethiol (DDT...

Gold nanoparticles hold a great promise for both clinical and preclinical applications. The major factors impeding such applications are toxicity of new nanomaterials including e.g., pro-apoptotic activities or inflammatory effects, but also their potential to accumulate in the body or inadequate absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (...

Two small 1,1,4,4-tetracyanobutadiene-functionalized chromophores were obtained by careful leverage of the regioselectivity of the cycloaddition reaction of tetracyanoethylene with anthracene–ynamide derivatives, inducing either a [2 + 2] or a [4 + 2] Diels–Alder process. DFT calculations unraveled the mechanism of the [2 + 2] cycloaddition–retroel...

Heterometallic binuclear Ru-Pt and trinuclear Zn-Pt complexes were prepared via self-assembly by attaching PtII-tpy (tpy = 2,2’:6’,2”-terpyridine) onto RuII-tpy and ZnII-bis(tpy) moiety. The visible absorption bands for Ru-Pt complexes are primarily due to RuII→tpy MLCT transitions with some overlap from PtII→tpy MLCT, while no MLCT transition is o...

Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern that is driving the exploration of alternative ways of killing bacteria. Here we show that gold nanoparticles synthesized by the mycelium of Mucor plumbeus are an effective medium for antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (PDT). These particles are spherical in shape, uniformly distributed without any signifi...

p>Two small 1,1,4,4-tetracyanobutadiene-functionalized chromophores were obtained by careful leverage of the regioselectivity of the cycloaddition reaction of tetracyanoethylene with anthracene-ynamide derivatives, inducing either a [2+2] or a [4+2] Diels–Alder process. DFT calculations unraveled the mechanism of the [2+2] cycloaddition-retroelectr...

Lyotropic myelin figures (MFs), i.e., long cylindrical structures formed by certain surfactants, owe their name to their resemblance to the biological membrane that covers nerve fibers. Herein, we used a strong bilayer-forming zwitterionic phospholipid stained by the Nile Red dye to study lamellar mesophases. Polarized optical microscopy and fluore...

The need for alternative strategies to fight bacteria is evident from the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. To that respect, photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy steadily rises in bacterial eradication by using light, a photosensitizer and oxygen, which generates reactive oxygen species that may kill bacteria. Herein, we report the encapsul...

The process of two-photon-induced isomerization occurring in various organic molecules, among which azobenzene derivatives hold a prominent position, offers a wide range of functionalities, which can be used in both material and life sciences. This review provides a comprehensive description of nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of azobenzene (AB)...

Carbon-based dots have been attracting much attention as potentially superior alternatives to more conventional semiconductor nanoparticles, due to their fascinating optical properties, chemical and photochemical stability, unique environmental-friendliness, and the versatility of fabrication routes. Many commercial materials and organic compounds...

By attaching pyridine groups to a diaza[6]helicene, a helical, bis‐ditopic, bis‐N N‐coordinating ligand can be accessed. Dinuclear rhenium complexes featuring this bridging ligand, of the form [{Re(CO)3Cl}2(N N−N N)], have been prepared and resolved to give enantiopure complexes. These complexes are phosphorescent in solution at room temperature un...

OLEDs are attractive and distinctive light sources because of they are very thin, emit over an area and can be flexible. These features also make them very interesting for medical applications as compact, lightweight sources can enable ambulatory treatment. In photodynamic therapy (PDT), light in combination with a photosensitiser leads to the gene...

Gold nanoparticles are widely used in different fields. They are currently under extensive investigation with regard to their linear and nonlinear optical properties. So far, nanoparticles with centrosymmetrical shapes, such as nanospheres or nanorods, have received the main attention. In this work, the properties of gold nanoprisms exhibiting a hi...

Although there is much interest in the use of azobenzenes (ABs) as molecular switches for biological and material science applications, there is still need for systematic rationalization of their photophysical properties determined at both experimental and theoretical level. We present here the (re-) evaluation of the properties of some AB derivati...

The facile method of the exocyclic π-extension of the carbaporphyrinoid embedding phenanthrene moiety – phenanthriporphyrin – has been described. The reaction between 5,6-dioxophenanthriporphyrin and a series of aliphatic and aromatic amines provided a family of carbaporphyrinoids incorporating azaacene components. The 1H NMR spectrocopic, electroc...

Plasmonic nanoparticles exhibit excellent light-harvesting properties in the visible spectral range, which makes them convenient material for the conversion of light into useful chemical fuel. However, the need for using surface ligands to ensure colloidal stability of nanoparticles inhibits their photochemical performance, due to the insulating mo...

The synthesis and characterization of six triarylisocyanurates, featuring 2,7‐fluorenyl or 9,10‐anthracenyl groups incorporated in their peripheral arms are reported. Photophysical studies reveal that these new octupolar derivatives are more fluorescent (ΦF≥0.60 for all new compounds except for 1,3,5‐tri(9H‐fluoren‐2‐yl)‐1,3,5‐triazinane‐2,4,6‐trio...

Nonlinear optical microscopy was employed to investigate the properties of microstructures of quinacridone, a hydrogen-bonded pigment, derivative of quinacridine. Recently, quinacridone hierarchical microstructures (μ-QNC) having different nature-inspired morphologies were reported, e.g. in the shape of hedgehogs formed by self-assembled nano-needl...

Flexible OLED technology is becoming increasingly mature and is ready to open new directions in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy. An international team led by Prof Ifor Samuel from University of St Andrews, UK presents a comprehensive study to show that flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are ideal light sources to be used in photodyna...

Understanding binding of DNA bases with gold surfaces is crucial for designing reliable tools in biosensing technology and organic-based electronics. Herein, we discuss an application of quasi periodic plasmonic nanocavities fabricated by a top-down method to study adenine interactions with gold surfaces. We report plasmon-mediated homogenous catal...

Azo dyes with electron-donating and neutral substituents in PMMA matrix and solution were prepared and characterized. High optical quality films were made for linear optical characterization of azo dyes. Two-photon absorption spectra, for investigated compounds dissolved in DMF, were obtained by Z-Scan measurements. The π-π* transition of investiga...

This study reports successful photodynamic inactivation of planktonic and biofilm cells of Enterococcus faecalis using Methylene Blue (MB) in combination with gold nanoparticles synthesized using the cell-free filtrate obtained from 3-day biomass of Trichoderma asperellum strain. Monodispersed colloidal gold nanoparticles were characterized by UV-v...

The development of photodynamic therapy at depth requires photosensitizers which have both sufficient quantum yield for singlet oxygen generation and strong two photon absorption. Here we show that this can be achieved by conjugated linkage of zinc porphyrins to make dimers. We determined the quantum yield of generation of 1O2,  , by measuring em...

We describe the application of Cistus incanus extract as a source of reducing, structure-directing and stabilizing agents in the fabrication of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) from tetrachloroauric acid solution. The synthesis resulted in the formation of nanostructures with highly extended surface area, resembling the shape of popcorn. Various ratios of...

We investigated the optical properties of heterocyclic azo dyes with different side groups prepared: as powders, in PMMA matrix and side-chain polymers. We characterized the nonlinear optical effects of these compounds by Z-scan and all-optical poling techniques and supported these experiments with theoretical modeling. It was also found that these...

Fluorescence imaging probes for specific G-quadruplex (G4) conformations are of considerable interest in biomedical research. Herein, we present the synthesis and the binding properties of a new water-soluble near-infrared (NIR) amphiphilic squaraine dye (CAS-C1) which is capable of selective detection of parallel over non-parallel and non G4 topol...

Spatiotemporal control over the regulation of intra‐ and intermolecular motions in naturally occurring systems is systematically studied to expand the toolbox of mechanical operations in multicomponent nanoarchitectures. DNA is ideally suited for programming light‐powered processes based on minimalist molecular design. Herein, we show that the nonc...

We show that incorporation of chiral bioinspired photochromic compounds into inherently chiral DNA matrices enables one to build smart nanoscale photoswitchable chiroptical assemblies tunable over a wide range of wavelengths....

Thiolate-protected gold nanoclusters have recently attracted considerable attention due to their size-dependent luminescence characterized by a long lifetime and large Stokes shift. However, the optimization of nanocluster properties such as the luminescence quantum yield is still a challenge. We report here transformation of Au25Capt18 (Capt label...

The anisotropic shape of DNA molecules allows them to form lyotropic liquid crystals (LCs) at high concentrations. This liquid crystalline arrangement is also found in vivo (e.g., in bacteriophage capsids, bacteria or human sperm nuclei). However, the role of DNA liquid crystalline organization in living organisms still remains an open question. He...

Many essential similarities between the behavior and arrangement of biological structures and liquid crystals can be found. Moreover, some of biomacromolecules, such as DNA, are shown to exhibit lyotropic liquid crystalline phases both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we used natural DNA concentration condition to form DNA liquid crystal (LC) p...

The cover picture shows the photoinduced conformational changes induced by continuous irradiation at specific wavelengths. Third-order nonlinear optical properties of azobenzene-containing isocyanurates can be modulated by irradiation at specific wavelengths. The modest influence of the photoinduced changes on their nonlinear absorption properties...

The implication of guanine-rich DNA sequences in biologically important roles such as telomerase dysfunction and the regulation of gene expression has prompted the search for structure-specific G-quadruplex agents for targeted diagnostic and therapeutic applications. To date, the number of two-photon absorbing fluorogenic dyes with intrinsically la...

The synthesis of three new isocyanurate derivatives 2-X (X = NO2, H, NMe2) featuring azobenzene arms terminated by various X substituents is reported and their linear and nonlinear absorption properties are studied. It is shown that mixtures containing increased contents of cis-azo isomers can be reversibly generated upon photo-irradiation at speci...

The binding interaction of a biocompatible water-soluble polycationic two-photon fluorophore (Ant-PIm) toward human serum albumin (HSA) was thoroughly investigated under simulated physiological conditions using a combination of steady-state, time-resolved, and two-photon excited fluorescence techniques. The emission properties of both Ant-PIm and t...

We report here the influence of the irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses on the gold nanoprisms synthesized using biological and chemical methods. For the bio-mediated growth, we used plant extract as a source of reducing, structure-directing, and stabilizing agents, while for the chemical method, we applied three-step protocol, involving chem...

We report on two-photon excitation properties of small silver-doped gold nanoclusters (AuAgNCs) and on their three-dimensional arrangement in a hybrid system composed of DNA liquid crystals (LCs) and AuAgNCs. UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and multiphoton excitation spectroscopy were used to characteriz...

Three novel tyrosine-conjugated azobenzene molecules have been designed and their ability to target a natural chiral host matrix (human serum albumin, HSA) investigated. We found that the interplay between the spatial configuration of the chiral substituents and the change in local symmetry resulting from the photoisomerization process strongly aff...

A model compounds set that contains a series of fan-shaped chromophores using 2,3,8-trifunctionalized indenoquinoxaline units as the major building block of their π-framework was synthesized and characterized for their two- and three-photon absorption properties in the femtosecond regime based on two-photon-excited fluorescence and Z-scan technique...

This study reports on successful photodynamic inactivation of planktonic and biofilm cells of Candida albicans using Rose Bengal (RB) in combination with biogenic gold nanoparticles synthesized by the cell-free filtrate of Penicillium funiculosum BL1 strain. Monodispersed colloidal gold nanoparticles coated with proteins were characterized by a num...

Control over chemical and biochemical processes by agents sensitive either to internal or external stimuli has attracted much attention in recent years. In particular photosensitive polyamines have been recently used to photo-trigger the hybridization/melting of DNA as well as to modify its intrinsic morphology. These results prompted us to synthes...

The nonlinear optical effect of second harmonic generation can be very strong when originating from nanoplasmonic structures, due to enhancement of the surrounding material's intrinsic non-linear optical properties or due to its occurrence as a result of the plasmonic structure. However, manufacturing of large-scale three dimensional nanoplasmonic...

The optical properties of atomically-precise gold nanoclusters differ significantly from those of plasmonic gold nanoparticles, in both linear and nonlinear regimes. Here, we present a systematic study on the third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of thiol-protected gold clusters in a wide range of wavelengths. We applied the Z-scan techniq...

We report the synthesis, spectroscopy, and the DNA binding properties of a biocompatible, water-soluble, polycationic two-photon absorbing anthracenyl derivative (Ant-PIm) specifically designed for bio-related applications. Detailed insights into the Ant-PIm-DNA binding interaction are provided by using several spectroscopic approaches, including U...

The photochromic properties of azobenzene, involving conformational changes occurring upon interaction with light, provide an excellent tool to establish new ways of selective regulation applied to biosystems. We report here on the binding of two water-soluble 4-(phenylazo)benzoic acid derivatives (Azo-2N and Azo-3N) with double stranded DNA and de...

A chromophore-engineering strategy that relies on the introduction of a ground state distortion in a quadrupolar chromophore was used to obtain a quasi-quadrupolar chromophore with red emission and large two-photon absorption (TPA) cross section in polar solvents. This molecule was functionalized with water solubilizing polymer chains. It constitut...

The synthesis and characterization of four new tetracyanobutadiene (TCBD) derivatives (1-3 and 2') incorporating 2- or 2,7-fluorenyl and diphenylamino moieties are reported. The electroactivity of 1-3 and 2' was studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), while the linear optical and (third-order) nonlinear optical (NLO) properties were investigated by ele...

We report on the impact of doping with gold nanorods (NRs) on the formation and stability of DNA liquid crystals (LCs). Cetyl trimethylammonium (CTAB)-stabilized gold NRs were synthesized using the wet chemistry method. Different textures of cholesteric and columnar mesophases, as well as phase transitions, were observed using a polarized light mic...