Our paper, titled "Shortwave infrared absorbing and fluorescent BODIPY J-aggregates for high-contrast in vivo imaging," has just been published in Chemical Science! Congratulations to Zhiyong and all collaborators!

J-aggregates are known for their remarkable bathochromic shifts in absorption and emission, reduced Stokes shifts, and enhanced fluorescence quantum yields (Φf) compared with monomers. However, many reported J-aggregates—particularly those with extended π-conjugated frameworks—suffer from quenched fluorescence due to undesired H-aggregation and strong intermolecular interactions.

Based on our previous efforts to develop BODIPY dimers (Org. Lett. 2023, 25, 1638-1642) and J-aggregates (Sci. Adv. 2022, 8, eadd5660) with shortwave infrared (SWIR) absorption and fluorescence, we discovered that a “Ƶ-type” molecular design enables the formation of J-aggregates with enhanced aggregation-induced emission. Both the “Z” configuration and the central “stroke” are crucial for achieving pure J-aggregation in these newly designed BODIPY dyes.

This strategy yielded BODIPY J-aggregates with simultaneous SWIR absorption and fluorescence, which show great promise for multiplexed fluorescence and photoacoustic in vivo imaging.

For more details, please visit the link below:

https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC03864B