A Simple Way to Construct a Robust Semiconducting Polymer for Lysosome Probes and Light-Emitting Transistors

Journal article, 2026

Developing organic semiconductors (OSCs) with multiple functions is attractive. The integration of bioimaging and electrically driven light-emitting capabilities into single OSCs enables the fabrication of advanced bioelectronic devices for detecting live cell activity. However, OSCs are volatile under an acidic environment (lysosome) since they can be chemically doped. Besides, live cells will be poisoned by OSCs after swelling, because the OSC probes usually have heavy atoms or heavy metals. Thus, obtaining OSCs with strong robustness and good biocompatibility in an economically synthetic way for dual applications has become emergent. In this work, TPD-CZ, a donor–acceptor polymer OSC with a basic molecular structure, was synthesized via a one-step Suzuki–Miyaura coupling method. Incredibly, TPD-CZ showed high acid stability, photostability, thermal stability, and even chemical doping stability. In addition, suitable frontier molecular energy levels and high photoluminescent quantum yield (PLQY) over 40% were obtained, which enabled its application in both bioimaging and light-emitting electronic devices. Low cytotoxicity and strong lysosome targeting ability were found when TPD-CZ was used as a lysosome probe, which was superior to the commercial Lyso-Tracker Red. Moreover, organic light-emitting field-effect transistors (OLETs) based on TPD-CZ were fabricated and exhibited a strong yellow emission.