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A Highly Efficient Red Metal-free Organic Phosphor for Time-Resolved Luminescence Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy
journal contribution
posted on 2019-04-30, 00:00 authored by Huifang Shi, Liang Zou, Kaiwei Huang, He Wang, Chen Sun, Shan Wang, Huili Ma, Yarong He, Jianpu Wang, Haidong Yu, Wei Yao, Zhongfu An, Qiang Zhao, Wei HuangDeveloping highly
efficient red metal-free organic phosphors for
biological applications is a formidable challenge. Here, we report
a novel molecular design principle to obtain red metal-free organic
phosphors with long emission lifetime (504.6 μs) and high phosphorescence
efficiency (14.6%) from the isolated molecules in the crystal. Furthermore,
the well-dispersed phosphorescent nanodots (PNDs) with the particle
size around 5 nm are prepared through polymer-encapsulation in an
aqueous solution, which show good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity.
The metal-free PNDs are successfully applied to time-resolved luminescence
imaging to eliminate background fluorescence interference both in vitro
and vivo as well as effective photodynamic anticancer therapy for
the first time. This work will not only pave a pathway to develop
highly efficient metal-free RTP materials but also expand the scope
of their applications to biomedical fields.