Efficient two-step synthesis of water soluble BODIPY–TREN chemosensors for copper(II) ions

Two simple fluorescent sensors for Cu(II) ions were synthesized in two reaction steps, using recently developed C–H functionalization reactions for boron dipyrrins, starting from a standard 8-aryl-BODIPY dye and a tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (TREN) ligand. At pH 5, the resulting BODIPY–TREN conjugates are demonstrated to be promising, highly selective, water soluble, Cu(II) sensors that can permeate the cell membrane. crosscheck: This document is CrossCheck deposited related_data: Supplementary Information identifier: Bram Verbelen (ORCID) identifier: Wim Dehaen (ORCID) copyright_licence: The Royal Society of Chemistry has an exclusive publication licence for this journal copyright_licence: Thi…