A boron difluoride dye showing the aggregation-induced emission feature and high sensitivity to intra- and extra-cellular pH changes.

A novel AIE-active boron difluoride fluorescent probe P3T was designed and synthesized. P3T exhibited high sensitivity to intra- and extra-cellular pH changes. Furthermore, a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) system was constructed, where P3T acted as a donor fluorophore and DOX as the acceptor.