J‐Aggregates Formed by NaCl Treatment of Aza‐Coating Heptamethine Cyanines and Their Application to Monitoring Salt Stress of Plants and Promoting Photothermal Therapy of Tumors

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie 2023-01, Vol.135 (3), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Ma, Xiaoxie, Huang, Yurou, Chen, Weijie, Liu, Jia, Liu, Sheng Hua, Yin, Jun, Yang, Guang‐Fu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption; Aggregates; Chemistry; Cyanines; Electrostatic properties; Fluorescence; Fluorescent Probes; J-Aggregation; Photothermal conversion; Photothermal Therapy; Salinity tolerance; Salt Stress; Salts; Sodium chloride; Stress; Tracing; Tumors
• ISSN: 0044-8249; 1521-3757
• DOI: 10.1002/ange.202216109

The cationic nature of heptamethine cyanines gives them the capacity to form aggregates with salts by electrostatic interactions. In this work, NaCl promoted J‐aggregate formation of aza‐coating heptamethine cyanines is explored. NaCl can induce the N‐benzyloxycarbonyl Cy‐CO2Bz to assemble into a J‐aggregate having an absorption at 890 nm. Its excellent fluorescence response to NaCl implies that it has great potential for use as a probe for tracing salt stress in plants. Moreover, NaCl also promotes formation of J‐aggregates from the N‐ethyloxycarbonyl Cy‐CO2Et. The aggregate shows an intense absorption at 910 nm compared to the monomer which absorbs at 766 nm. Its J‐aggregated form can serve as a photothermal agent. And the photothermal conversion efficiency is increased from 29.37 % to 57.59 %. This effort leads to the development of two applications of new cyanine J‐aggregates including one for tracing salt stress of plants and the other for promoting photothermal therapy of tumors. Two J‐aggregates formed by NaCl treatment of aza‐coating hepetamine cyanines act as functional fluorescent probes for monitoring salt stress of plants and promoting photothermal therapy of tumors.