ABSTRACT Measuring viscosity and temperature on the microscale is a challening yet very important task, in materials sciences and in biology alike. In this perpsective we review and discuss fluorescent microviscosity sensors, termed ‘molecular rotors’, that offer a convenient way of measuring microscopic viscosity and sometimes may even be used to measure microscopic temperature in addition to viscosity. We discuss how temperature in combination with various solvent properties can affect microviscosity measurements and we review possible action mechanisms that make molecular rotors sensitive to multiple parameters of their environment. Overall, we reveal a complicated, yet exciting, behaviour of molecular rotors at different viscosity, temperature and solvent properties on the microscale and how this behaviour can be explained and exploited.

中文翻译：

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一个扭曲的故事：使用分子转子测量微环境的粘度和温度

摘要 在微观尺度上测量粘度和温度是一项具有挑战性但非常重要的任务，无论是在材料科学还是在生物学中。在这个透视图中，我们回顾和讨论荧光微粘度传感器，称为“分子转子”，它提供了一种测量微观粘度的便捷方法，有时甚至可以用来测量除粘度之外的微观温度。我们讨论了温度与各种溶剂性质相结合如何影响微粘度测量，并回顾了使分子转子对其环境的多个参数敏感的可能作用机制。总的来说，我们揭示了分子转子在微观尺度上不同粘度、温度和溶剂性质下的复杂但令人兴奋的行为，以及如何解释和利用这种行为。