One- and two-photon fluorescence properties of six chromophores were successfully tuned by a simple structure modification. The chromophore3Bwith significant AIE and 2PA effect shows promise in bioimaging applications.
A specific series of chromophores (CN1, CN2, CN3, and CN4) have been synthesized, in which contained a triphenylamine moiety as the electron donor (D), a cyanoacetic acid moiety as the electron acceptor (A), vinylene or phenylethyne as the pi-bridge, and ethyoxyl groups as auxiliary electron donor (D') to construct the D-pi-A or D'-D-pi-A molecular configuration. Photophysical properties of them were systematically investigated. These results show that the chromophores display a solvatochromism (blue shift) and large Stokes shifts for their absorption bands with increasing polarity of the solvent. Furthermore, the chromophore CN4 shows the strongest intensity of two-photon excited fluorescence and largest two-photon absorption cross section (2783 GM) in the near infrared region. Finally, the connections between the structures and properties are systematically investigated relying on the information from linear and nonlinear optical properties, crytsal structures and quantum chemical calculation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Synthesis, crystals of centrosymmetric triphenylamine chromophores bearing prodigious two-photon absorption cross-section and biological imaging
Two centrosymmetric D-pi-D type triphenylamine chromophores with long pi-conjugated bridge and strong electron-donating moiety were designed, synthesized and fully characterized. The crystal analysis revealed that multiple C-H center dot center dot center dot pi interactions existed in two chromophores, which played a crucial role in generating molecular 1D chains and 2D layers structures. Linear and nonlinear optical properties of the chromophores were systematically investigated with the aid of theoretical calculations. Two chromophores both exhibited intense and wide-dispersed one-photon/two-photon excited fluorescence, bear prodigious 2PA cross section (delta). Especially for Dye2, with ethyoxyl groups, displayed the strong 2PA activity, large cross-sections (delta(max) > 16,000 GM) and high NLO efficiency (delta(max)/MW > 16 GM/(g.mol)) in the range of 680-830 nm in DMF. In addition, one- and two-photon fluorescence microscopy images of HepG2 cells incubated with Dye2 were obtained and found that Dye2 could effectively uptake toward living cells and display a uniformly localized in cytosolic space. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.