Design and synthesis of photostable triphenylamine based neutral AIE nano luminogens: specific and long-term tracking of mitochondria in cells.

With the increasing dependence on fluorescence bioimaging, luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties have gained significant attention due to their excellent photostabilization, minimal photobleaching, high reliability, and superior biocompatibility. Since mitochondria are crucial subcellular organelles in eukaryotic cells with important biological functions, organelle-specific AIE emitters with distinct functions have been highly sought after, but with limited success using simple synthetic methods. Here, we describe a strategy for synthesizing two triphenylamine (TPA) based acrylonitriles, tethered to different donor groups, TPA and phenothiazine (PTZ), respectively, with superior AIE properties using Suzuki coupling.

Rh(iii)-Catalysed synthesis of cinnolinium and fluoranthenium salts using C-H activation/annulation reactions: organelle specific mitochondrial staining applications.

The construction of a novel class of indazolo[2,1-a]cinnolin-7-ium and diazabenzofluoranthenium salts was developed by using Rh(iii)-catalyzed C-H activation/annulation reactions with 2-phenyl-2H-indazole, and internal alkynes, which resulted in structurally important polycyclic heteroaromatic compounds (PHAs). This reaction uses mild reaction conditions and has a high efficiency, low catalyst loading, and wide substrate scope. The overall catalytic process involves C-H activation followed by C-C/C-N bond formation.

Rhodium(iii)-catalysed decarbonylative annulation through C-H activation: expedient access to aminoisocoumarins by weak coordination.

Rhodium-catalysed decarbonylative annulation of isatoic anhydrides with alkynes through C-H activation for the synthesis of aminoisocoumarins was developed. This enables the gram-scale transformation to iodoisocoumarin which is a vital building block in transition-metal-catalysed cross couplings. These compounds exhibit blue-emitting luminescence properties.

Ru(II)-Catalyzed Regiospecific C-H/O-H Oxidative Annulation to Access Isochromeno[8,1-]phenazines: Far-Red Fluorescence and Live Cancer Cell Imaging.

A facile ruthenium(II)-catalyzed regiospecific C-H/O-H oxidative annulation methodology was developed to construct isochromeno[8,1-]phenazines. This methodology delivers various advantages, such as scope for diverse substrates, tolerance to a range of functional groups, stability under air, and yields regioselective products. This methodology was successfully applied to synthesize far red (FR) fluorescent probes for live cancer cell imaging.