An Efficient Near-Infrared Emissive Artificial Supramolecular Light-Harvesting System for Imaging in the Golgi Apparatus.

Light-harvesting systems are an important way for capturing, transferring and utilizing light energy. It remains a key challenge to develop highly efficient artificial light-harvesting systems. Herein, we report a supramolecular co-assembly based on lower-rim dodecyl-modified sulfonatocalix[4]arene (SC4AD) and naphthyl-1,8-diphenyl pyridinium derivative (NPS) as a light-harvesting platform. NPS as a donor shows significant aggregation induced emission enhancement (AIEE) after assembling with SC4AD. Upon introduction of Nile blue (NiB) as an acceptor into the NPS-SC4AD co-assembly, the light-harvesting system becomes near-infrared (NIR) emissive (675 nm). Importantly, the NIR emitting NPS-SC4AD-NiB system exhibits an ultrahigh antenna effect (33.1) at a high donor/acceptor ratio (250:1). By co-staining PC-3 cells with a Golgi staining reagent, NBD C6 -ceramide, NIR imaging in the Golgi apparatus has been demonstrated using these NIR emissive nanoparticles.