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Increasing Molecular Planarity through Donor/Side‐Chain Engineering for Improved NIR‐IIa Fluorescence Imaging and NIR‐II Photothermal Therapy under 1064 nm
Abstract
Developing conjugated small molecules (CSM) with intense NIR‐II (1000–1700 nm) absorption for phototheranostic is highly desirable but remains a tremendous challenge due to a lack of reliable design guidelines. This study reports a high‐performance NIR‐II CSM for phototheranostic by tailoring molecular planarity. A series of CSM show bathochromic absorption extended to the NIR‐II region upon the increasing thiophene number, but an excessive number of thiophene results in decreased NIR‐IIa (1300–1400 nm) brightness and photothermal effects. Further introduction of terminal nonconjugated alkyl chain can enhance NIR‐II absorption coefficient, NIR‐IIa brightness, and photothermal effects. Mechanism studies ascribe this overall enhancement to molecular planarity stemming from the collective contribution of donor/side‐chain engineering. This finding directs the design of NIR‐II CSM by rational manipulating molecular planarity to perform 1064 nm mediated phototheranostic at high efficiency.
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In the citing paper
“Fan et al. proposed a strategy based on donor and side-chain engineering to modulate molecular planarity, which enabled the successful design of high-performance NIR-II fluorophores (Fig. 6a)129.”
From Organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for tumor phototheranostics (2026) · cites this paper as [129]
In the citing paper
“Increasing the number of thiophene units induced pronounced red-shifts in absorption into the NIR-II region, while moderate side-chain substitution further enhanced fluorescence brightness and PCE by maintaining an optimal conformation.”
From Organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for tumor phototheranostics (2026) · cites this paper as [129]
In the citing paper
“Fan et al. successfully developed a high-performance photosensitizer (BETA) for NIR-II fluorescence/PA imaging-guided PTT (Fig. 22a)129.”
From Organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for tumor phototheranostics (2026) · cites this paper as [129]
In the citing paper
“The BETA NPs encapsulated by Pluronic F-127 exhibited a maximum absorption at 892 nm, with a high ɛ1064 of 1.13 × 104 M−1 cm−1, achieving a maximum NIR-II PCE of 47.6%.”
From Organic small-molecule NIR-II fluorophores for tumor phototheranostics (2026) · cites this paper as [129]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chen, S., Pan, Y., Chen, K., Chen, P., Shen, Q., Sun, P., Hu, W., & Fan, Q.
- Affiliations
- Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Sun, Pengfei
- Hu, Wenbo
- Fan, Quli
- Venue
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2022-12-29
- Volume
- 62
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e202215372-e202215372
- ISSN
- 1433-7851 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-3773
- OpenAlex
- W4310957594
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 17
- FWCI
- 7.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (21604042, 62175201)
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20201380, BK20221326)
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Physical and Theoretical Chemistry › Photochemistry and Electron Transfer Studies
- Keywords
- NIR-II photothermal therapy, conjugated small molecules, molecular planarity, 1064 nm excitation, phototheranostics, molecular design
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