Issue 19, 2022

Highly symmetric Ln(iii) boron-containing macrocycles as bright fluorophores for living cell imaging

Abstract

Boron-assisted highly symmetric lanthanide (Ln) macrocycles, (η2-catechol-μ-catecholborate)3Ln(Ph3PO)2·xC7H8 (Ln = Dy, x = 0, Dy-B-Ph3PO; Ln = Yb, x = 1, Yb-B-Ph3PO) have been achieved by a one-pot reaction of Ln[N(TMS)2]3 (TMS = –SiMe3) with excess catecholborane (HBCat) in the presence of Ph3PO. Both macrocycles exhibit high brightness and long lifetimes benefitting from the combination of the rigid molecular backbone and the diminishing detrimental high energy X–H (X = C, N and O) vibrations. In particular, Dy-B-Ph3PO exhibited the longest 4F9/2 lifetime beyond 200 μs to date. When (4-(anthracen-9-yl)phenyl)diphenylphosphine oxide (AnPh3PO) was used as the antenna ligand, a highly luminescent NIR bioprobe, Yb-B-AnPh3PO, showing no apparent cell toxicity and high quality in vitro imaging, was obtained. Furthermore, the synthetic versatility of this system permits additional investigations of multifunctional Ln molecular materials in the future.

Graphical abstract: Highly symmetric Ln(iii) boron-containing macrocycles as bright fluorophores for living cell imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
11 jul 2022
Accepted
05 ago 2022
First published
05 ago 2022

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2022,9, 5048-5054

Highly symmetric Ln(III) boron-containing macrocycles as bright fluorophores for living cell imaging

Z. Zhu, G. Jin, J. Wu, X. Ying, C. Zhao, J. Zhang and J. Tang, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2022, 9, 5048 DOI: 10.1039/D2QI01476A

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