“…Over the past decade there has been considerable interest in the synthesis of organic chromophores with strong absorption and fluorescence bands in the near-IR (NIR) region primarily because of advances in optical techniques for imaging, in microarrays, and in electrophoresis, and the need for 5 rapidly. 34,[37][38][39][40][41] This has been related to, (i) their facile synthesis and structural versatility, (ii) their excellent spectroscopic properties (narrow Gaussian-shaped absorption and emission bands, high molar extinction coefficients (usually ε > 80 000 M −1 .cm −1 ) and Φ F values (commonly Φ > 0.50), moderate redox potentials, negligible triplet-state formation and negligible sensitivity to solvent polarity, excellent photostability, and high solubility in commonly used organic solvents of differing polarities), and (iii) their wide range of potential applications in numerous research fields. 32,33,[37][38][39][40] A major drawback, however, is that the spectral properties of the classic BODIPY chromophore are typically limited to the 470 -530 nm region.…”