Rapid Aqueous Photouncaging by Red Light

This work describes three new red-photocleavable dyes. The best-performing dye exhibits a quantum yield of 5.7% in 30:70 v/v water/acetonitrile and approximately 80% release of benzoic acid using a 626 nm LED. Photo-orthogonality between this dye and a UV-activated photouncaging group was demonstrated. Additionally, a qualitative comparison between the same pair of dyes in a gel was performed, highlighting the superior penetration depth that can be achieved using the newly reported dye.