Investigation on fluorescein derivatives with thermally activated delayed fluorescence and their applications in imaging

Fluorescein derivatives with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) show much stronger competition ability and vaster prospects than traditional fluorescein dyes due to their prominent long lifetime. It will be of great significance to synthesize more fluorescein derivatives with TADF. In this work, compounds DCF-MPYA and FL with TADF properties were obtained by fine tuning the substituents' structure on the basis of fluorescein derivative DCF-MPYM. Their long-lived triplet excited states (21.78 μs, 32.0 μs) were proved by nanosecond time-resolved transient difference absorption spectra. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectra showed that DCF-MPYA and FL exhibited red fluorescence around 645 nm and 651 nm, respectively. The results of sensitivity to oxygen and heavy atoms further demonstrated that the time-resolved fluorescence spectra originate from the delayed fluorescence. The time correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) data indicated that DCF-MPYA and FL showed long-lived lifetimes of 13.16 μs and 23.72 μs, respectively. The energy gap (ΔE(ST)) between the singlet (S(1)) and triplet (T(1)) states of DCF-MPYA and FL was calculated to be 3.32 meV and 9.98 meV from the decay rate of DF as a function of temperature. The small energy gap is conducive to the occurrence of efficient TADF at room temperature. Meanwhile, Gaussian calculation was employed to observe the electron density of DCF-MPYA and FL in the ground and excited states. The calculation results indicate that the shapes and energy levels of the highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs), lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs), and LUMOs+1 for the monoanion and dianion forms are similar and thus DCF-MPYA and FL exhibit almost the same luminescence properties. Finally, DCF-MPYA and FL with low toxicity were used in confocal and time-resolved fluorescence imaging. Our construction strategy will be beneficial for developing more fluorescein derivatives with TADF in the future.