Recent developments in design of novel water-soluble BODIPYs and their applications: an updated review

Boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) and their derivatives play an important role in the area of organic fluorophore chemistry. The water-soluble boron-dipyrromethene dyes have increasingly received interest, recently. The structural modification of BODIPY core by incorporating different neutral and ionic hydrophilic groups makes it water soluble. The important hydrophilic groups such as quaternary ammonium, sulfonate, oligo-ethylene glycol, dicarboxylic acid, and sugar moieties significantly increased the solubility of these dyes in the water while preserving their photophysical properties. As a result, these fluorescent dyes are utilized in aqueous systems, for applications such as chemosensors, cell imaging, anti-cancer, bio-labelling, biomedicine, metal ion detection, and photodynamic treatment. This review covers most current developments in design and synthesis of water-soluble BODIPY derivatives and their wide applications since 2014.