Abstract
A novel triphenylamine-base derivative L containing pyridine and terpyridine was designed and synthesized. Compound L exhibited distinct aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior in water–ethanol and also displayed a threefold increase in the intensity of luminescence at 608 nm. Furthermore, confocal microscopy imaging demonstrated that compound L displays low toxicity and brights red fluorescence in mitochondria in living HepG2 cells. Inherent from the mitochondrial-targeting ability of pyridine moiety and the AIE characteristic of triphenylamine group, compound L could be employed as a fluorescent probe in the near-infrared region for living cell imaging.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Science Foundation of Department Education of Anhui Province (KJ2017ZD49), and the Talent Foundation of the Education Department of Anhui (gxbjZD2016111), Doctoral Startup Foundation of Wannan Medical College (wYRCQD201715).
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Xiao, L., Sun, H., Zhou, L. et al. Design and synthesis of an AIE-active fluorogen with red emission and its biological application. Chem. Pap. 72, 2813–2819 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-018-0529-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-018-0529-0