Key Laboratory of Nanobiosensing and Nanobioanalysis at Universities of Jilin Province, Department of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun, Jilin Province 130024, P. R. China.
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China.
Dalton Trans. 2020 Nov 10;49(43):15332-15338. doi: 10.1039/d0dt02962a.
Near-infrared (NIR) emission and impressive singlet oxygen (1O2) generation ability are highly desirable but remain difficult to realize as aggregation-induced emission (AIE) photosensitizers (PSs). Herein, mono- and tri-nuclear NIR AIE cationic Ir(iii) complexes and their corresponding self-assembled nanoparticles (NPs) without any surfactants or adjuvants were designed and synthesized by integrating rigid 1,3,5-triphenyl benzene as an extended π-conjugation bridge. The pure NPs exhibit multiple merits of stronger NIR emission, higher 1O2 production capacity, better water solubility and negligible dark toxicity compared with the Ir(iii) complexes. Notably, the AIE PS3 NPs possess bright NIR emission at 730 nm, suitable spherical sizes below 100 nm, favorable cellular uptake and superior phototoxicity (IC50 = 1.4 × 10-6 M). These are the first pure NIR-emitting multinuclear Ir(iii) complex NPs obtained by self-assembly that exhibit excellent cell imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT) performance.
近红外（NIR）发射和令人印象深刻的单线态氧（1O2）产生能力是非常理想的，但作为聚集诱导发射（AIE）光敏剂（PS）仍然难以实现。在此，通过整合刚性 1,3,5-三苯基苯作为扩展的π共轭桥，设计并合成了单核和三核近红外 AIE 阳离子 Ir（iii）配合物及其相应的自组装纳米颗粒（NPs），无需使用任何表面活性剂或助剂。与 Ir（iii）配合物相比，纯 NPs 表现出更强的 NIR 发射、更高的 1O2 产生能力、更好的水溶性和可忽略的暗毒性等多种优点。值得注意的是，AIE PS3 NPs 在 730nm 处具有明亮的 NIR 发射，尺寸适宜，小于 100nm，具有良好的细胞摄取能力和优异的光毒性（IC50 = 1.4×10-6M）。这些是通过自组装获得的第一个具有优异细胞成像和光动力治疗（PDT）性能的纯 NIR 发射多核 Ir（iii）配合物 NPs。
