Chemical modification of BODIPY fluorophores aiming at structural and photophysical diversity for the development of novel fluorescent probes

Abstract

The emergence and spread of spectroscopic and imaging techniques based on fluorescence emission has stimulated research on different classes of fluorescent compounds, among which our research group has been working in the preparation, characterization and application of BODIPYs. So far our group has successfully synthesized and characterized a series of BODIPYs that have been applied by several collaborators. In order to extend the scope of the compounds synthesized by our group, we plan to establish modern synthetic methods for the chemical modification and photophysical tuning of BODIPYs. In this context, this project aims to establish collaboration with the research group of prof. Wim Dehaen from KU Leuven in Belgium, who has published a series of papers describing methods of chemical modification of BODPYs. We propose to apply modern synthetic methods seeking to obtain novel fluorophores with structural and photophysical diversity. The proposed chemical modification methods involve direct arylation via palladium catalyzed C-H activation, condensation of vinyl aromatic derivatives and preparation of dihydronaphthalenic derivatives. In addition to the synthesis we will realize the photophysical characterization of each compound by studying their absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Finally we will perform functionalizations of some compounds with functional groups classically used in bioconjugation, aiming their application in this field. (AU)