Luminescent Inorganic and Organometallic Transition Metal Complexes Modified with a Fluorous Pendant as New Biological Probes

The aim of this project is the design of new biological probes using luminescent inorganic and organometallic transition metal complexes modified with a fluorous pendant. Since the development of fluorous biphasic catalyst techniques, fluorous chemistry has become an active area of research. It enables facile integration of organic synthesis and separation owing to the selectivity arising from the fluorine-fluorine interactions. It has also been applied to biological studies such as peptide enrichment in proteomic experiments. Although fluorescent fluorous compounds are known, a systematic design of luminescent inorganic and organometallic transition metal fluorous complexes as biomolecular probes has not been explored. In this project, new luminescent transition metal complexes appended with a fluorous moiety will be developed. The photophysical, biomolecular binding, and cellular uptake properties of the complexes will be studied. Emphasis will be placed on the effects of the appended fluorous unit on the various properties of the complexes.