Self‐Assembly of Highly Stable Zirconium(IV) Coordination Cages with Aggregation Induced Emission Molecular Rotors for Live‐Cell Imaging. Issue 25 (23rd January 2020) - Dong, Jinqiao
Abstract: The self‐assembly of highly stable zirconium(IV)‐based coordination cages with aggregation induced emission (AIE) molecular rotors for in vitro bio‐imaging is reported. The two coordination cages, NUS‐100 and NUS‐101, are assembled from the highly stable trinuclear zirconium vertices and two flexible carboxyl‐decorated tetraphenylethylene (TPE) spacers. Extensive experimental and theoretical results show that the emissive intensity of the coordination cages can be controlled by restricting the dynamics of AIE‐active molecular rotors though multiple external stimuli. Because the two coordination cages have excellent chemical stability in aqueous solutions (pH stability: 2–10) and impressive AIE characteristics contributed by the molecular rotors, they can be employed as novel biological fluorescent probes for in vitro live‐cell imaging. Abstract : Highly stable coordination cages with trinuclear zirconium vertices and flexible carboxyl‐decorated tetraphenylethylene (TPE) spacers were formed by self‐assembly. The two water‐stable cages exhibit impressive aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) characteristics contributed by the molecular rotors and can be employed as biological fluorescent probes for live‐cell imaging.