Facile construction of boranil complexes with aggregation-induced emission characteristics and their specific lipid droplet imaging applications

A rational strategy was reported to construct boranil complexes (DPFB derivatives) with unique aggregation-induced emission effects by installing phenyl rings in the anil ligand as the intramolecular rotors. In view of the good biocompatibility and suitable lipophilicity, DPFB derivatives can serve as excellent fluorescent probes for specific imaging of lipid droplets in living cells and yolk lipids in zebrafish.