Near-infrared heptamethine cyanines (Cy7): from structure, property to application.

Heptamethine cyanine dyes (Cy7) have attracted much attention in the field of biological application due to their unique structure and attractive near infrared (NIR) photophysical properties. In this review, the influences of different modification sites on the absorption characteristics, photostability, Stokes shift, fluorescence characteristics, water solubility, and singlet oxygen generation efficiency of this class of dyes are summarized, and the application development of the corresponding dyes in the field of biological application is introduced, which will provide a reference for the optimization and improvement of heptamethine cyanine dyes in the future.