LAUSR

A novel triphenylamine-base derivative L containing pyridine and terpyridine was designed and synthesized. Compound L exhibited distinct aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior in water–ethanol and also displayed a threefold increase in the intensity of luminescence at 608 nm. Furthermore, confocal microscopy imaging demonstrated that compound L displays low toxicity and brights red fluorescence in mitochondria in living HepG2 cells. Inherent from the mitochondrial-targeting ability of pyridine moiety and the AIE characteristic of triphenylamine group, compound L could be employed as a fluorescent probe in the near-infrared region for living cell imaging.