Rational Design of Molecular Fluorophores for Biological Imaging in the NIR‐II Window
Abstract
A new design for second near-infrared window (NIR-II) molecular fluorophores based on a shielding unit-donor-acceptor-donor-shielding unit (S-D-A-D-S) structure is reported. With 3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene as the donor and fluorene as the shielding unit, the best performance fluorophores IR-FE and IR-FEP exhibit an emission quantum yield of 31% in toluene and 2.0% in water, respectively, representing the brightest organic dyes in NIR-II region reported so far.
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The π-spacer plays an important role in tuning the energy levels of D-π-A-π-D chromophores by extending π-conjugation that promotes/stabilizes the quinoid structure or by introducing steric effects to control the overall twist affecting ICT properties.
“As stated above, the π-spacer also plays an important role in tuning the energy levels of the D-π-A-π-D type of chromophores, as it extends the π-conjugation that promotes/stabilizes the quinoid structure or introduces steric effects to control the overall twist affecting the ICT properties of the system.56,58−61”
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- Authors
- Yang, Q., Ma, Z., Wang, H., Zhou, B., Zhu, S., Zhong, Y., Wang, J., Wan, H., Antaris, A., Ma, R., Zhang, X., Yang, J., Zhang, X., Sun, H., Liu, W., Liang, Y., & Dai, H.
- Affiliations
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Stanford University (US)
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy Science and Technology (CN)
- Tianjin University (CN)
- Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Xiaodong
- Sun, Haitao
- Liang, Yongye
- Dai, Hongjie
- ORCID
- Venue
- Advanced Materials
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-01-24
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 12
- ISSN
- 0935-9648 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-4095
- OpenAlex
- W2582561014
- Cited by
- 467
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 11
- FWCI
- 21.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Advanced Materials (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21603074)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Molecular Sensors and Ion Detection
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Physical and Theoretical Chemistry › Photochemistry and Electron Transfer Studies
- Keywords
- second near-infrared window, 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene, fluorene, organic dyes, emission quantum yield, bioimaging, water-soluble dyes
- MeSH terms
- Fluorescent Dyes, Water
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