Organic Dots with Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE Dots) Characteristics for Dual-Color Cell Tracing

Abstract

Modern fluorescence imaging techniques have become essential tools to provide crucial insights in understanding complicated biological processes. Because of their unique optical properties (e.g., excellent photostability, high brightness, broad absorption, and narrow emission), inorganic quantum dots (QDs) have attracted great interest in fluorescence bioimaging. However, the intrinsic toxicity resulting from their heavy-metal components as well as the low-pH-induced fluorescence-quenching phenomenon has motivated researchers to explore novel fluorescent probes with the goal of overcoming these obstacles. In this work, we report the synthesis of two groups of organic fluorescent dots with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics that have a large Stokes shift, ensuring distinct emission spectra (green and red fluorescence) under single-wavelength excitation. Single-particle imaging experiments revealed the unique optical properties of such AIE dots, which outperform their commercially available ...