Design and Serendipity in Fluorophore Chemistry

The rich chemistry of the BODIPY motif, together with its beneficial photophysical properties, has markedly boosted the popularity of this user-friendly fluorophore over the last few decades.^[1] The diversity of easily incorporated fluorescence modulation modes has set the stage for a variety of sensorically active species.

The talk describes which physical-organic rationalisation led to the development of the BOIMPY motif showing a significant red-shift with respect to the parent BODIPY.^[2] In addition, a simple synthetic route to oligomerized ethano-linked BODIPYs (up to an octamer) is presented which can be further oxidized to huge completely conjugated systems.^[3] Photophysical properties and biological properties are discussed by experimental and theoretical means.^[4] It is shown that the suprastructure of the oligomeric dyes plays a significant role for their absorption and emission properties and that the conjugated systems are interesting NIR fluorophores.