Issue 12, 2019

Facile synthesis of AIEgens with wide color tunability for cellular imaging and therapy

Abstract

Luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics are nowadays undergoing explosive development in the fields of imaging, process visualization, diagnosis and therapy. However, exploration of an AIE luminogen (AIEgen) system allowing for extremely wide color tunability remains challenging. In this contribution, the facile synthesis of triphenylamine (TPA)–thiophene building block-based AIEgens having tunable maximum emission wavelengths covering violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, deep red and NIR regions is reported. The obtained AIEgens can be utilized as extraordinary fluorescent probes for lipid droplet (LD)-specific cell imaging and cell fusion assessment, showing excellent image contrast to the cell background and high photostability, as well as satisfactory visualization outcomes. Interestingly, quantitative evaluation of the phototherapy effect demonstrates that one of these presented AIEgens, namely TTNIR, performs well as a photosensitizer for photodynamic ablation of cancer cells upon white light irradiation. This study thus provides useful insights into rational design of fluorescence systems for widely tuning emission colors with high brightness, and remarkably extends the applications of AIEgens.

Graphical abstract: Facile synthesis of AIEgens with wide color tunability for cellular imaging and therapy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
29 Dec 2018
Accepted
18 Feb 2019
First published
22 Feb 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 3494-3501

Facile synthesis of AIEgens with wide color tunability for cellular imaging and therapy

W. Xu, M. M. S. Lee, Z. Zhang, H. H. Y. Sung, I. D. Williams, R. T. K. Kwok, J. W. Y. Lam, D. Wang and B. Z. Tang, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 3494 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC05805A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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