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A BODIPY‐Based Donor/Donor–Acceptor System: Towards Highly Efficient Long‐Wavelength‐Excitable Near‐IR Polymer Dots with Narrow and Strong Absorption Features
Author(s) -
Chen Lei,
Chen Dandan,
Jiang Yifei,
Zhang Jicheng,
Yu Jiangbo,
DuFort Christopher C.,
Hingorani Sunil R.,
Zhang Xuanjun,
Wu Changfeng,
Chiu Daniel T.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201902077
Subject(s) - chemistry , ternary operation , fluorescence , acceptor , laser , polymer , quantum yield , photochemistry , quantum dot , optoelectronics , materials science , optics , physics , organic chemistry , condensed matter physics , computer science , programming language
Bright long‐wavelength‐excitable semiconducting polymer dots (LWE‐Pdots) are highly desirable for in vivo imaging and multiplexed in vitro bioassays. LWE‐Pdots have been obtained by incorporating a near‐infrared (NIR) emitter into the backbone of a polymer host to develop a binary donor–acceptor (D–A) system. However, they usually suffer from severe concentration quenching and a trade‐off between fluorescence quantum yield (Φ f ) and absorption cross‐section (σ). Herein, we describe a ternary component (D 1 /D 2 –A) strategy to achieve ultrabright, green laser‐excitable Pdots with narrow‐band NIR emission by introducing a BODIPY‐based assistant polymer donor as D 1 . The D 1 /D 2 –A Pdots possess improved Φ f and σ compared to corresponding binary D 2 –A Pdots. Their Φ f is as high as 40.2 %, one of the most efficient NIR Pdots reported. The D 1 /D 2 –A Pdots show ultrahigh single‐particle brightness, 83‐fold brighter than Qdot 705 when excited by a 532 nm laser. When injected into mice, higher contrast in vivo tumor imaging was achieved using the ternary Pdots versus the binary D–A Pdots.