Abstract
Although lanthanide double-decker complexes with hetero-macrocyclic ligands as functional luminescent and magnetic materials have promising properties, their inferior water solubility has negated their biomedical applications. Herein, four water-soluble homoleptic lanthanide (Ln = Gd, Er, Yb and La) sandwiches with diethylene-glycol-disubstituted porphyrins (DD) are reported, with their structures proven by both quantum chemical calculations and scanning tunneling microscopy. Our findings demonstrate that the near-infrared emission intensity and singlet oxygen (1O2) quantum yields of YbDD and GdDD in aqueous media are higher than those of the reported capped lanthanide monoporphyrinato analogues, YbN and GdN; the brightness and luminescence lifetime in water of YbDD are greater than those of YbN. This work provides a new dimension for the future design and development of molecular theranostics-based water-soluble double-decker lanthanide bisporphyrinates.
Original language | English (US) |
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Journal | Light: Science & Applications |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 22 2019 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Hong Kong Research Grants Council (HKBU 12300117), and the HKBU-HKPolyU Joint Research Program (RC-ICRS/16-17/02). We thank Dr. Zhenyu Liu for his technical support in spectroscopic measurements and Professor Alex Granovsky for communication concerning the use of Firefly.