Steric hindrance boosted upconversion for low-power imaging in vivo

Upconversion based on triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA-UC) has received much attention due to its unique ability to effectively harvest low-energy photons in the solar spectrum for widespread investigations involving energy, environment, and bioapplication. However, the utilization of conventional TTA-UC systems for low-power bioimaging in vivo is still a challenge due to their incompatibility and moderate efficiency in aqueous media. Herein, we pioneer the molecular modification strategy by introducing steric hindrance to the BODIPY annihilators to realize robust TTA-UC in biocompatible nanocapsule . The improved molecules could maintain excellent luminescence even at a very high concentration wherein the separation distance between neighbouring chromophores was reduced to facilitate the pivotal process of Dexter energy transfer. In this way, the encapsulated TTA-UC system became highly efficient in biological circumstance with quantum efficiency Ф UC of 6.3%. Consequently, the constructed nanocapsule was capable of operating at low-power with high contrast for in vivo imaging.