Arylphthalimidoporphyrins: New Approaches to Imaging pH and Temperature Simultaneously with Oxygen

We will discuss a family of recently developed tetraarylphalimidoporphyrins (TAPIP) and diarylphalimidoporphyrins (DAPIP), which possess unique photophysical properties and suggest new approaches to the design of superior biological sensors for pH and temperature in addition to their already established ability as sensors for oxygen. The synthesis of TAPIP has already been developed by our group previously. Here we present a synthetic route to asymmetric diarylphthalimidoporphyrins (DAPIP) based on [2+2] condensation of the corresponding dipyrromethanes, followed by oxidative aromatization. We report the properties of free-base (H2), Zn(II), Pt(II) and Pd(II) DAPIP's, including their two-photon absorption (2PA) spectra. Using a combination of phosphorescent Pt complexes of TAPIP and DAPIP we are designing a phosphorescent sensor for pH and oxygen, termed pHOx, which operates by measuring ratios of phosphorescence lifetimes. Unlike all existing optical pH sensors, measurements by pHOx are not affected by optical heterogeneities of the medium and provide unbiased pH readings in vivo simultaneously with pO2. At the same time, Pd complexes of TAPIP have been shown to emit both phosphorescence and thermally activated E-type delayed fluorescence, providing a functional element for optical sensing of temperature. However, to make the temperature readings unobstructed by optical heterogeneities of biological tissue, a PdTAPIP-based probe is supplemented by another probe system, based on H2DAPIP, which emits prompt fluorescence at the same wavelengths and can serve as a correction standard for unbiased temperature measurements.