Issue 38, 2022

The pursuit of polymethine fluorophores with NIR-II emission and high brightness for in vivo applications

Abstract

Polymethine cyanine dyes, as the most important class of organic near-infrared-II (NIR-II) fluorophores, recently received increasing attention due to their high molar extinction coefficients, intensive fluorescence brightness, and flexible wavelength tunability for fluorescent bioimaging applications. Very recently, remarkable advances have been made in the development of NIR-II polymethine fluorophores with improved optical performance, mainly including tunable fluorescence, improved brightness, improved water solubility and stability. In this review, we summarize the recent research advances in molecular tailoring design strategies of NIR-II polymethine fluorophores, and then emphasize the representative bioimaging and biosensing applications. The potential challenges and perspectives of NIR-II polymethine fluorophores in this emerging field are also discussed. This review may provide guidance and reference for further development of high-performance NIR-II polymethine fluorophores to boost their clinical translation in the future.

Graphical abstract: The pursuit of polymethine fluorophores with NIR-II emission and high brightness for in vivo applications

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
06 Jun 2022
Accepted
25 Aug 2022
First published
27 Aug 2022
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., 2022,13, 11280-11293

The pursuit of polymethine fluorophores with NIR-II emission and high brightness for in vivo applications

X. Zhao, F. Zhang and Z. Lei, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 11280 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC03136A

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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