Straightforward Access to Water‐Soluble Unsymmetrical Sulfoxanthene Dyes: Application to the Preparation of Far‐Red Fluorescent Dyes with Large Stokes’ Shifts

Abstract An efficient synthesis of water‐soluble unsymmetrical sulforhodamine/sulforhodol fluorophores containing a single julolidine fragment is presented. Owing to their valuable spectral properties in aqueous buffers, these dyes, especially those bearing a free aniline or phenol moiety, are valuable components of fluorogenic probes for a variety of biosensing applications. A further extension of this synthetic methodology to unusual phenols, namely 7‐ N , N ‐dialkylamino‐4‐hydroxy coumarins has enabled us to provide a new family water‐soluble dyes of large Stokes’ shift with far‐red spectral features.