Abstract: Molecular rotors, which structure can be 4‐(N,N‐dimethylamino)‐benzene, ‐benzylidene and ‐cinnamylidene derivatives and, also, coumarine‐like compounds, have photophysical characteristics which strongly depend on the environmental parameters (polarity, viscosity, temperature, etc.). In this paper, a basic knowledge on molecular fluorescent rotors will be reminded and two fields of applications using molecular fluorescent rotors as optical sensors will be described: firstly, in polymer and, more particularly to detect the formation of hydrophobic microdomains, in the case of the aggregation of amphiphilic polymers (as models for globular proteins and/or enzymes) and, secondly, in cell biology, especially in liposomes (as models for biological membranes) to follow their thermotropic behavior and in endothelial cells under 3D fluorescence microscopy.
Keywords: Fluorescent molecular rotors, amphiphilic probes, amphiphilic polymers, hydrophobic microdomains, liposomes, cryo‐transmission electron microscopy, 3D fluorescence microscopy
