2-⁵-Phosphaquinolin-2-ones as Non-cytotoxic, Targetable, and pH-Stable Fluorophores

Several phosphaquinolinone derivatives have been synthesized and characterized to explore their usefulness in the realm of cell imaging. Solution-state photophysical properties in both aqueous and organic solutions were collected for these derivatives. Additionally, CCK-8 cell viability assays and fluorescent imaging in HeLa cells incubated with the new heterocyclic derivatives show evidence of favorable cell permeability, cell viability, and moderate intracellular localization when appended with the well-known morpholine targeting motif.