Fluorescence Assisted Capillary Electrophoresis of Glycans Enabled by the Negatively Charged Auxochromes in 1‐Aminopyrenes

A compact and negatively charged acceptor group, N‐(cyanamino)sulfonyl, is introduced for dye design and its influence on the absorption and emission spectra of the “push–pull” chromophores is demonstrated with 1,3,6‐tris[(cyanamino)sulfonyl]‐8‐aminopyrene. The new sulfonamides, including O‐phosphorylated (3‐hydroxyazetidine)‐N‐sulfonyl, are negatively charged electron acceptors and auxochromes. 1‐Aminopyrenes decorated with the new sulfonamides have three or six negative charges (pH ≥8), low m/z ratios, high mobilities in an electric field, and yellow to orange emission. We labeled maltodextrin oligomers by reductive amination, separated the products by electrophoresis, and demonstrated their high brightness in a commercial DNA analyzer and the distribution of the emission signal among the detection channels.