Recent Advances in Pure-Organic Host–Guest Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Systems Toward Bioimaging

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have garnered considerable attention in the fields of biosensing, optoelectronic devices, and anticounterfeiting because of their substantial Stokes shifts, tunable emission wavelengths, and prolonged lifetimes. These materials offer remarkable advantages for biological imaging applications by effectively reducing environmental autofluorescence and enhancing imaging resolution. Recently, host–guest systems have been employed as efficient approaches to fabricate pure-organic RTP materials for bioimaging, providing benefits such as controllable preparation and flexible modulation. Consequently, an increasing number of corresponding studies are being reported; however, a comprehensive systematic review is still lacking. Therefore, we summarize recent advances in the development of pure-organic RTP materials using host–guest systems with regard to bioimaging, including rigid matrices and sensitization. The challenge and potential of RTP for biological imaging are also proposed to promote the biomedical applications of organic RTP materials with excellent optical properties.