Platinum trimethyl bipyridyl thiolates--new, tunable, red- to near IR emitting luminophores for bioimaging applications.

Synthetic, spectroscopic, computational and biological imaging studies of platinum trimethyl bipyridyl thiolate complexes of the general formula [PtMe3(bpy)SR] reveal these to be easily accessed, tunable bioimaging agents which feature an unusual σ-π* Inter-Ligand Charge Transfer (ILCT) transition, and in some cases emit into the Near infra-red (NIR).