Here, we demonstrate mimicking of photophysical properties of native green fluorescent protein (gfp) by immobilizing the gfp chromophore analogues in nanoscale MOF-808 and further exploring the bioimaging applications. The two virtually nonfluorescent gfp chromophore analogues carrying different functionalities, BDI-AE (COOH/COOMe) and BDI-EE (COOMe/ COOMe) were immobilized in nanosized MOF-808 via postsynthetic modification. An 1 H NMR and IR study confirms that BDI-AE was coordinated in NMOF-808, whereas BDI-EE was just noncovalently encapsulated. Interestingly, the extremely weakly fluorescent monomers BDI-AE and BDI-EE (QY = 0.01−0.03%, lifetime = 0.01−0.03 ns) showed a 10 2 -fold increase in quantum efficiency with a significantly longer excited-state lifetime (QY = 1.8−5.6%, lifetime 0.89−1.49 ns) after immobilization in the NMOF-808 scaffold.

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