Issue 35, 2015

Boron ketoiminate-based conjugated polymers with tunable AIE behaviours and their applications for cell imaging

Abstract

Three new boron ketoiminate-based conjugated polymers P1, P2, and P3 were designed and synthesized through the Sonogashira coupling reaction of 4,6-bis(4-bromophenyl)-2,2-difluoro-3-phenyl-2H-1,3,2-oxazaborinin-3-ium-2-uide (M1) with 1,4-diethynyl-2,5-bis(octyloxy)benzene (M2), 3,6-diethynyl-9-octyl-9H-carbazole (M3) and 3,7-diethynyl-10-octyl-10H-phenothiazine-S,S-dioxide (M4), respectively. All the resulting polymers showed obvious aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behaviours. Interestingly, it was found that a great difference in the electron-donating abilities of the D–A type polymer linkers can lead to the unique AIE behaviour of the alternating polymers in the aggregate state, which provides us with a practical strategy to design tunable AIE-active conjugated polymers. Most importantly, studies on MCF-7 breast cancer cell imaging revealed that the nanoparticles fabricated from the conjugated polymers could serve as promising fluorescent probes with low cytotoxicity and high photostability.

Graphical abstract: Boron ketoiminate-based conjugated polymers with tunable AIE behaviours and their applications for cell imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Jūn. 2015
Accepted
21 Jūl. 2015
First published
21 Jūl. 2015

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015,3, 7030-7036

Author version available

Boron ketoiminate-based conjugated polymers with tunable AIE behaviours and their applications for cell imaging

C. Dai, D. Yang, W. Zhang, X. Fu, Q. Chen, C. Zhu, Y. Cheng and L. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2015, 3, 7030 DOI: 10.1039/C5TB01262G

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