This critical review covers the advances made using the 4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) scaffold as a fluorophore in the design, synthesis and application of fluorescent indicators for pH, metal ions, anions, biomolecules, reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, redox potential, chemical reactions and various physical phenomena. The sections of the review describing the criteria for rational design of fluorescent indicators and the mathematical expressions for analyzing spectrophotometric and fluorometric titrations are applicable to all fluorescent probes (206 references).

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Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence techniques have been used to study the photophysical properties of the fluorescent BODIPY-derived dye 3-{2-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethenyl}-4,4-difluoro-8-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,5,7-trimethyl-3a,4a-diaza-4-bora-s-indacene. This compound has been synthesized via a microwaveassisted condensation of p-N,N-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde with the appropriate 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl substituted borondipyrromethene unit. The fluorescence properties of the dye are strongly solvent dependent: increasing the solvent polarity leads to lower fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes, and the wavelength of maximum fluorescence emission shifts to the red. The Catalán solvent scales are found to be the most suitable for describing the solvatochromic shifts of the fluorescence emission. These are dominated by polarity/polarizability effects, as confirmed by quantum-chemical calculations performed in the dielectric continuum approximation. Fluorescence decay profiles of the dye can be described by a single-exponential fit in most solvents investigated, while two decay times are found in alcohols. The dye undergoes a reversible protonation-deprotonation reaction in the acidic pH range with a pK a of 2.25 in acetonitrile solution. Fluorimetric titrations as a function of pH produce fluorescence emission enhancements at lower pH. The fluorescence excitation spectra show a hypsochromic shift from 600 nm for the neutral amine to 553 nm for the ammonium form, so that ratiometric measurements can be used to determine pK a .

The photophysical properties of seven new 8-(p-substituted)phenyl analogues of 4,4-difluoro-3,5-dimethyl-8-(aryl)-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (derivatives of the well-known fluorophore BODIPY) in several solvents have been studied by means of absorption and steady-state and time-resolved fluorimetry. For each compound, the fluorescence quantum yield and lifetime are lower in solvents with higher polarity owing to an increase in the rate of nonradiative deactivation. Increasing the electron withdrawing strength of the p-substituent on the phenyl group in position 8 also leads to lower fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes. When the p-substituent on the phenyl group in position 8 is a tertiary amine [8-(4-piperidinophenyl), 8-(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl), and 8-(4-morpholinophenyl)], the low quantum yields of these compounds in more polar solvents can be rationalized by the inversion of the energy levels of an apolar, highly fluorescent and a polar, nonfluorescent excited state, where charge transfer from the tertiary amine to the BODIPY unit occurs. These amine analogues can be protonated at low pH in aqueous solution. Fluorescence titrations yielded pK(a) values of their conjugate ammonium salts which are in agreement with the electron donating tendency of the amine group: piperidino (4.15) > dimethylamino (2.37) > morpholino (1.47), with the pK(a) values in parentheses. The rate constant of radiative deactivation (k(f)) is the same for all compounds in all solvents studied (k(f) = 1.4 x 10(8) s(-1)).