J-Aggregates Formed by NaCl Treatment of Aza-Coating Heptamethine Cyanines and Their Application to Monitoring Salt Stress of Plants and Promoting Photothermal Therapy of Tumors

The cationic nature of heptamethine cyanines gives them the capacity to form aggregates with salts by electrostatic interactions. In this work, NaCl promoted J-aggregate formation of aza-coating heptamethine cyanines is explored. NaCl can induce the N-benzyloxycarbonyl Cy-CO(2)Bz to assemble into a J-aggregate having an absorption at 890 nm. Its excellent fluorescence response to NaCl implies that it has great potential for use as a probe for tracing salt stress in plants. Moreover, NaCl also promotes formation of J-aggregates from the N-ethyloxycarbonyl Cy-CO2Et. The aggregate shows an intense absorption at 910 nm compared to the monomer which absorbs at 766 nm. Its J-aggregated form can serve as a photothermal agent. And the photothermal conversion efficiency is increased from 29.37 % to 57.59 %. This effort leads to the development of two applications of new cyanine J-aggregates including one for tracing salt stress of plants and the other for promoting photothermal therapy of tumors.

Automated summary

This study explores the ability of sodium chloride to promote the formation of J-aggregates from N-benzyloxycarbonyl Cy-CO(2)Bz and N-ethyloxycarbonyl Cy-CO2Et. The results suggest that these aggregates have potential applications in tracing salt stress in plants and promoting photothermal therapy of tumors.