Two new iridium complexes, （dfppy）2Ir（L-alanine） （dfppy-2-（2,4-difluorophenyl）pyridine） and （piq）21r（L-alanine） （piq - 1-phenylisoquinoline） were prepared with L-alanine as ancillary ligand. The two complexes show bright greenish-blue and red emission respectively. Theoretic study demonstrated that the emission nature of these complexes is mainly determined by the main ligand. And their improved aqueous solubility and the retained quantum yield favor their application in cell imaging. Intracellular imaging suggested that these two complexes have fine cell membrane permeability and is mainly distributed in cytoplasm. This study displayed a new strategy to design aqueous soluble phosphorescent cyclometallated if（Ⅲ） complex via introducing amino acid as ancillary ligand.
Tian-Yi LiHua-Chao ChenYi-Ming JingHua-Bo HanXiao LiangYou-Xuan ZhengWei-jiang He
