Cascade photocaging of diazeniumdiolate: a novel strategy for one and two photon triggered uncaging with real time reporting.

We report a new strategy, viz. cascade photocaging, for protecting diethylamine diazeniumdiolate (O2-position), a light sensitive molecule. Upon photolysis, the cascade photocage at first releases the light activatable linker (latent fluorophore) O2-caged diazeniumdiolate, which undergoes spontaneous 1,8-elimination, triggering the release of the diazeniumdiolate anion and the fluorophore.