One‐pot preparation of multicolor polymeric nanoparticles with high brightness by single wavelength excitation

Abstract

Fluorescent nanoparticles with multiplex distinct emission signatures and high brightness by a single wavelength excitation are substantially needed in multiplex bioassays and imaging. In this study, we synthesized fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles incorporated with three polymerizable organic dyes via a one-pot miniemulsion. By altering the doping ratio of three tandem dyes, the nanoparticles display abundant multiple fluorescence such as blue, cyan, green, orange, pink, red etc., together with distinguishable emission signatures under a single wavelength excitation, which were arising from the effective fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the three energy-matched dyes. Meanwhile, a large Stokes shift (up to 250 nm) can be generated by taking place multiple FRET cascade mechanism between donor and acceptor fluorophores in nanoparticles, which also suggests broad applications in biological labeling and imaging. Moreover, these nanoparticles are uniform in size, highly bright, excellently photostable, and shown prominent longterm stability. Overall, the novel multicolor fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles augur well for their potential applications in multiplexed bioanalysis and emitting displays.

From a Molecular Toolbox to a Toolbox for Photoswitchable Fluorescent Polymeric Nanoparticles

“…Scheme shows our design principle to amplify the molecular toolbox into nanoparticle one. Three polymerizable fluorescent building blocks, i.e., EANI, NBDME, and NRME, are selected because of their large Stokes shift, excellent chemical stability, and high fluorescence quantum yield; they emit blue, green, and red lights, respectively . DTEDA is a photochromic molecule that can undergo reversible open‐close transition under light irradiation.…”

“…All the fluorescent building blocks were synthesized via reported methods (Supporting Information) . To synthesize DTEDA , acryloyl chloride was esterified with the DTE derivative E to give DTEDA (Schemes S1 and S2, Supporting Information).…”

Surface Bio‐engineered Polymeric Nanoparticles

“…[192][193][194][195][196] One widely used sensing mechanism in this field relies on conjugating chemical compounds onto the PNP that can achieve fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) via single-wavelength excitation. [197][198][199][200] For example, the fluorescence emission spectrum of 7-hydroxycoumarin (HC) at 450 nm overlaps with the absorbance spectrum of 4-carboxy-3fluorophenylboronic acid (FPBA) when it is bound with Alizarin red S (ARS) dye, achieving FRET and a new fluorescence emission peak at 600 nm (Figure 5A). [147] In the presence of H 2 O 2 , ARS dissociates from the surface of the nanoprobe, decreasing the intensity at 600 nm as the fluorescence intensity at 450 nm increases which allows for a sensitive and selective ratiometric fluorescence response for H 2 O 2 detection.…”