Direct Photorelease of Alcohols from Boron-Alkylated BODIPY Photocages

Abstract

<p>BODIPY photocages allow release of substrates us-ing visible light irradiation. They have the drawback of requiring reasonably good leaving groups for photorelease. Photorelease of alcohols is often accomplished by attachment with carbonate linkages, which upon photorelease liberate CO2 and gen-erate the alcohol. Here, we show that boron-alkylated BODIPY photocages are capable of directly photoreleasing both aliphatic alcohols and phenols upon irradiation via photocleavage of ether linkages. Direct photorelease of a hydroxycoumarin dye was demonstrated in living HeLa cells.</p>