Aggregation-induced emission fluorophores based on strong electron-acceptor 2,2′-(anthracene-9,10-diylidene) dimalononitrile for biological imaging in the NIR-II window

Abstract

In this communication, three novel donor-acceptor-donor type second near-infrared AIE fluorophores based on strong electron-acceptor 2,2'-(anthracene-9,10-diylidene) dimalononitrile have been successfully developed for bioimaging, in which they exhibit good photostability and can be used in mouse ear vessel imaging with high resolution (FWHM = 93.4 μm/SBR = 1.5) after capsuling in nanoparticles with good biocompatibility.