Unlocking the NIR‐II AIEgen for High Brightness through Intramolecular Electrostatic Locking
Open accessAbstract
Fluorescent imaging and biosensing in the near‐infrared‐II (NIR‐II) window holds great promise for non‐invasive, radiation‐free, and rapid‐response clinical diagnosis. However, it's still challenging to develop bright NIR‐II fluorophores. In this study, we report a new strategy to enhance the brightness of NIR‐II aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) fluorophores through intramolecular electrostatic locking. By introducing sulfur atoms into the side chains of the thiophene bridge in TSEH molecule, the molecular motion of the conjugated backbone can be locked through intramolecular interactions between the sulfur and nitrogen atoms. This leads to enhanced NIR‐II fluorescent emission of TSEH in both solution and aggregation states. Notably, the encapsulated nanoparticles (NPs) of TSEH show enhanced brightness, which is 2.6‐fold higher than TEH NPs with alkyl side chains. The in vivo experiments reveal the feasibility of TSEH NPs in vascular and tumor imaging with a high signal‐to‐background ratio and precise resection for tiny tumors. In addition, polystyrene nanospheres encapsulated with TSEH are utilized for antigen detection in lateral flow assays, showing a signal‐to‐noise ratio 1.9‐fold higher than the TEH counterpart in detecting low‐concentration antigens. This work highlights the potential for developing bright NIR‐II fluorophores through intramolecular electrostatic locking and their potential applications in clinical diagnosis and biomedical research.
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The planar architecture of 4F is attributed to an intramolecular noncovalent S···O conformational lock.
“The interaction region indicator attributes the planar architecture of 4F to an intramolecular noncovalent S···O conformational lock (Fig. 2c)34–36.”
From Alleviating NIR-II emission quenching in ring-fused fluorophore via manipulating dimer populations for superior fluorescence imaging (2025) · cites this paper as [35]
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References 43 · Cited by 44
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- Authors
- Wang, X., Yang, X., Jiang, G., Hu, Z., Liao, T., Wang, G., Zhang, X., He, X., Zhang, J., Zhang, J., Cao, W., Zhang, K., Lam, J. W. Y., Sun, J., Sun, H., Liang, Y., & Tang, B. Z.
- Affiliations
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy Science and Technology (CN)
- WWHS Biotech. Inc. Shenzhen 518122 China
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Shanxi University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Tang, Ben Zhong
- ORCID
- Venue
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2024-06-14
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 29
- Pages
- e202404142-e202404142
- ISSN
- 1433-7851 (ISSN-L)
- 1521-3773
- OpenAlex
- W4396740407
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 4.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Rare & Special e-Zone (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12274128)
- Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No. 21QA1402600)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Molecular Sensors and Ion Detection
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques
- Keywords
- NIR-II fluorescence, aggregation-induced emission, thiophene bridge, nanoparticle encapsulation, vascular imaging, tumor imaging, lateral flow assay, antigen detection, polystyrene nanospheres
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Fluorescent Dyes, Humans, Infrared Rays, Thiophenes, Molecular Structure, Mice, Nanoparticles, Static Electricity, Optical Imaging
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