Fluorophores “Turned-On” by Corrosion Reactions Can Be Detected at the Single-Molecule Level

We demonstrate that fluorogenic molecules that "turn-on" upon redox reactions can sense the corrosion of iron at the single-molecule scale. We first observe the cathodic reduction of nonfluorescent resazurin to fluorescent resorufin in the presence of iron in bulk solution. The progression of corrosion is seen as a color change that is quantified as an increase in fluorescence emission intensity. We show that the fluorescence signal is directly related to the amount of electrons that are available due to corrosion progression and can be used to quantify the catalyzed increase in the rate of corrosion by NaCl. By using modern fluorescence microscopy instrumentation we detect real-time, single-molecule "turn-on" of resazurin by corrosion, overcoming the previous limitations of microscopic fluorescence corrosion detection. Analysis of the total number of individual resorufin molecules shows heterogeneities during the progression of corrosion that are not observed in ensemble measurements. Finally, we discuss the potential for single-molecule kinetic and super-resolution localization analysis of corrosion based on our findings. Single-molecule florescence microscopy opens up a new spatiotemporal regime to study corrosion at the molecular level.