General Strategy to Achieve Color-Tunable Ratiometric Two-Photon Integrated Single Semiconducting Polymer Dot for Imaging Hypochlorous Acid

Abstract

It is highly desired and challenging to construct integrated (all-in-one) single semiconducting-polymer-derived dot (Pdot) without any postmodification but with desired performances for bioapplications. In this work, eight hypochlorous acid (HClO)-sensitive integrated polymers and corresponding polymer-derived Pdots are designed through molecular engineering to comparatively study their analytical performances for detecting and imaging HClO. The optimized polymers-derived Pdots are obtained through regulating donor–acceptor structure, the content of HClO-sensitive units, and the position of HClO-sensitive units in the polymer backbone. The designed Pdots display distinguished characteristics including multicolours with blue, yellow, and red three primary fluorescence colors, determination mode from single-channel to dual-channel (ratiometric) quantification, ultrafast response, low detection limit, and high selectivity for ClO– sensing based on specific oxidation of ClO–-sensitive unit 10-methylphenothiazine (PT) accompanied by altering the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) processes in Pdots. The prepared integrated Pdots are also applied for two-photon ClO– imaging in HeLa cells and one- and two-photon ClO– imaging produced in acute inflammation in mice with satisfactory results. We believe that the present study not only provides excellent integrated fluorescent nanoprobes for ClO– monitoring in living systems but also extends a general strategy for designing integrated semiconducting polymers and Pdots with desired performances for biological applications.

Mitochondria-Targeted Ratiometric Chemdosimeter to Detect Hypochlorite Acid for Monitoring the Drug-Damaged Liver and Kidney

“…Therefore, it is urgent to improve the temporal and spatial resolution of probe imaging and reduce interference. Other challenges in developing probes for HClO detection include designing probes that respond quickly and selectively to HClO and other ROS, and that perform good imaging in living systems. − Currently reported probes use thioether as the recognition group; however, this similar structure has been pointed out to respond to other ROS, lacking specificity , Therefore, a high-quality fluorescent probe with excellent selectivity to HClO should be developed.…”

Anisotropic assembly and fluorescence enhancement of conjugated polymer nanostructures

“…Typical methods for preparing CPNs include reprecipitation of preformed polymer in aqueous solutions, 43,44 and direct synthesis from monomers by heterophane polymerization 45 . As CPNs are amorphous with no preferred shape, most methods generate spherical nanoparticles with very few exceptions 46–48 . Very recently, Mecking group reported ellipsoidal CPNs that were synthesized by heterophane polymerizations 49 .…”

Preparation, characterization and cell labelling of strong pH-controlled bicolor fluorescence carbonized polymer dots

“… 2–6 To date, enormous progress on fluorescence (from blue to red, even to near infrared) has been made in the field of carbon dots. 7–10 In particular, the strong multicolor fluorescence properties of carbon dots have been attracting the attention of researchers. 11,12 This is because multicolor fluorescence carbon dots have attractive application prospects in cell fluorescence bioimaging, which can track cellular changes (direct correlation with diseases) in organisms.…”