Application of 2,5-Dihydroxybenzoic Acid as a Fluorescent Probe to the Clarification of Microenvironment in Hydrogels of Biopolymers

抄録

2,5-Dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA) was found to show novel emission behavior depending on polarity of solvents. Fluorescence of DHBA has peaks at longer wavelengths as for a phenyl derivative and consists of three different components. They are zwitterion-type component produced by phototautomerism and anionic component in addition to usual neutral component. Finally, DHBA turned out to have some good advantages for the use as a fluorescent probe molecule. Thus, DHBA was applied to hydrogels of agarose and was ascertained to work well as a probe reflecting the microenvironment such as polarity and hydrophobicity. The gelation of agarose in water induced the remarkable change of DHBA fluorescence.