Phosphorescent Ir (III) complexes as cellular staining agents for biomedical molecular imaging

Phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes have attracted abundant attention in biomedical research due to their wide ranging properties and organelle specific intracellular imaging. Various types of Ir (III) complexes have been synthesized for visualization and monitoring of subcellular organelles and diagnosis of cancer. The aim of this review is to evaluate the progress of the phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes in bioimaging applications. We intend to highlight the use of Ir(III) complexes for staining the subcellular organelles, providing phosphorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, two photon and hypoxic tumor bioimaging.