Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 12, Issue 46, Pages 51293-51301Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c15936
Keywords
thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF); aggregation-induced emission; red emission; fluorescence imaging; time-resolved luminescence imaging
Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean government (MSIP) [2012R1A3A2048814, 2019R1A6A1A11044070, 2020R1A6C101B194]
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2020R1A6C101B194, 4120200213669] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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Organic thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials are emerging as potential candidates for time-resolved fluorescence imaging in biological systems. However, the development of purely organic TADF materials with bright aggregated-state emissions in the red/near-infrared (NIR) region remains challenging. Here, we report three donor-acceptor-type TADF molecules as promising candidates for time-resolved fluorescence imaging, which are engineered by direct connection of electron-donating moieties (phenoxazine or phenothiazine) and an electron-acceptor 1,8-naphthalimide (NI). Theoretically and experimentally, we elucidate that three TADF materials possessed remarkably small Delta E-ST to promote the occurrence of reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). Moreover, they all exhibit aggregation-induced red emissions and long delayed fluorescence lifetimes without the influence of molecular oxygen. More importantly, these long-lived and biocompatible TADF materials, especially the phenoxazine-substituted NI fluorophores, show great potential for high-contrast fluorescence lifetime imaging in living cells. This study provides further a molecular design strategy for purely organic TADF materials and expands the versatile biological application of long-lived fluorescence research in time-resolved luminescence imaging.
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