Functionalized boron-dipyrromethenes and their applications

Abstract

Boron-dipyrromethenes/BF₂-dipyrrins (BODIPYs) are highly fluorescent dyes with a wide range of applications in various fields because of their attractive photophysical properties. One of the salient features of BODIPYs is that the properties of the BODIPY can be fine-tuned at will by selectively introducing the substituent(s) at the desired location(s) of the BODIPY. The BODIPYs have several potential sites where the functional groups can be introduced and the functionalized BODIPYs can be used as building blocks to synthesize the desired BODIPY derivatives with interesting features. In this review, we presented the synthesis of different types of functionalized BODIPYs where the functional group(s) were introduced directly at the meso-carbon, at the pyrrole carbons of the BODIPY core as well as at the boron center and discussed their applications toward synthesis of simple substituted BODIPYs to complex BODIPY based systems.