Design of Near-Infrared-Triggered Metallo-Photosensitizers via a Self-Assembly-Induced Vibronic Decoupling Strategy

Development of highly efficient near-infrared (NIR)-excited photosensitizers is hampered by the fast nonradiative vibrational relaxation process regulated by the energy gap law. Here, from the fundamental perspective we propose that the intermolecular coupling of well-designed photosensitizers has the potential to facilitate exciton delocalization and hence reduce the exciton-vibration coupling, thereby boosting their phototherapeutic efficacy via inhibition of the vibrational relaxation pathway. Such conceived NIR-excited metallo-photosensitizers (IrHA1 and IrHA2) were prepared and studied for experimental validation. The resulting iridium complexes exhibited a little singlet oxygen (¹O₂) production in the monomeric state, but produced substantially enhanced ¹O₂ generation efficiency via benefiting from the exciton-vibration decoupling in the self-assembly state. Particularly, IrHA2 exhibits an unprecedented high ¹O₂ quantum yield of 54.9% (FDA-approved NIR dye indocyanine green: Φ_Δ = 0.2%) under 808 nm laser irradiation with negligible heat generation, probably attributed to the suppression of vibronic couplings from the stretching mode of the acceptor ligand. In phototherapy, IrHA2-NPs with high biocompatibility and low dark toxicity can induce substantial tumor regression with 92.9% tumor volume reduction in vivo. This self-assembly-induced vibronic decoupling strategy would offer an effective approach to the design of high-performance NIR-excited photosensitizers.