Issue 15, 2018

Highly luminescent, biocompatible ytterbium(iii) complexes as near-infrared fluorophores for living cell imaging

Abstract

Herein, we report the design and synthesis of biocompatible Yb3+ complexes for near-infrared (NIR) living cell imaging. Upon excitation at either the visible (Soret band) or red region (Q band), these β-fluorinated Yb3+ complexes display high NIR luminescence (quantum yields up to 23% and 13% in dimethyl sulfoxide and water, respectively) and have higher stabilities and prolonged decay lifetimes (up to 249 μs) compared to the β-non-fluorinated counterparts. This renders the β-fluorinated Yb3+ complexes as a new class of biological optical probes in both steady-state imaging and time-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM). NIR confocal fluorescence images showed strong and specific intracellular Yb3+ luminescence signals when the biocompatible Yb3+ complexes were uptaken into the living cells. Importantly, FLIM measurements showed an intracellular lifetime distribution between 100 and 200 μs, allowing an effective discrimination from cell autofluorescence, and afforded high signal-to-noise ratios as firstly demonstrated in the NIR region. These results demonstrated the prospects of NIR lanthanide complexes as biological probes for NIR steady-state fluorescence and time-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging.

Graphical abstract: Highly luminescent, biocompatible ytterbium(iii) complexes as near-infrared fluorophores for living cell imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
17 jan 2018
Accepted
18 mrt 2018
First published
19 mrt 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 3742-3753

Highly luminescent, biocompatible ytterbium(III) complexes as near-infrared fluorophores for living cell imaging

Y. Ning, J. Tang, Y. Liu, J. Jing, Y. Sun and J. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 3742 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC00259B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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