To
achieve the highly emissive features and overcome the troublesome
photobleaching for fluorescent organic molecules, a facile and versatile
strategy named “self-isolation enhanced emission (SIEE)”
was developed to prevent the π–π stacking of organic
fluorophores by linking alkyl chains on their conjugated backbones.
As a proof-of-concept, one or two octyl groups were grafted onto the
backbone of 4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole
(termed as DTBT-0), resulting in two different molecules, termed as
DTBT-1 and DTBT-2, respectively. Compared with DTBT-0, DTBT-1 and
DTBT-2 exhibited remarkably enhanced fluorescent properties in both
aggregated thin films and nanoparticles, demonstrating that the SIEE
method could isolate the fluorophores effectively and then prevent
their π–π stacking to achieve the impressive fluorescent
properties. After proper surface modification, excellent water dispersibility,
biocompatibility, and improved resistance to photobleaching were also
achieved for highly emissive DTBT-2-based nanoparticles, which were
then successfully applied for cellular imaging.