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Silole‐Based Red Fluorescent Organic Dots for Bright Two‐Photon Fluorescence In vitro Cell and In vivo Blood Vessel Imaging
Author(s) -
Chen Bin,
Feng Guangxue,
He Bairong,
Goh Chiching,
Xu Shidang,
RamosOrtiz Gabriel,
AparicioIxta Laura,
Zhou Jian,
Ng Laiguan,
Zhao Zujin,
Liu Bin,
Tang Ben Zhong
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201502822
Subject(s) - fluorescence , two photon excitation microscopy , biocompatibility , materials science , quenching (fluorescence) , absorption (acoustics) , in vivo , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , quantum yield , photochemistry , luminescence , biophysics , optoelectronics , chemistry , optics , biology , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , metallurgy , composite material
Robust luminescent dyes with efficient two‐photon fluorescence are highly desirable for biological imaging applications, but those suitable for organic dots fabrication are still rare because of aggregation‐caused quenching. In this work, a red fluorescent silole, 2,5‐bis[5‐(dimesitylboranyl)thiophen‐2‐yl]‐1‐methyl‐1,3,4‐triphenylsilole ((MesB) 2 DTTPS), is synthesized and characterized. (MesB) 2 DTTPS exhibits enhanced fluorescence efficiency in nanoaggregates, indicative of aggregation‐enhanced emission (AEE). The organic dots fabricated by encapsulating (MesB) 2 DTTPS within lipid‐PEG show red fluorescence peaking at 598 nm and a high fluorescence quantum yield of 32%. Upon excitation at 820 nm, the dots show a large two‐photon absorption cross section of 3.43 × 10 5 GM, which yields a two‐photon action cross section of 1.09 × 10 5 GM. These (MesB) 2 DTTPS dots show good biocompatibility and are successfully applied to one‐photon and two‐photon fluorescence imaging of MCF‐7 cells and two‐photon in vivo visualization of the blood vascular of mouse muscle in a high‐contrast and noninvasive manner. Moreover, the 3D blood vasculature located at the mouse ear skin with a depth of over 100 μm can also be visualized clearly, providing the spatiotemporal information about the whole blood vascular network.