Issue 20, 2018

Self-reporting and refoldable profluorescent single-chain nanoparticles

Abstract

We pioneer the formation of self-reporting and refoldable profluorescent single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) via the light-induced reaction (λmax = 320 nm) of nitroxide radicals with a photo-active crosslinker. Whereas the tethered nitroxide moiety in these polymers fully quenches the luminescence (i.e. fluorescence) of the aromatic backbone, nitroxide trapping of a transient C-radical leads to the corresponding closed shell alkoxyamine thereby restoring luminescence of the folded SCNP. Hence, the polymer in the folded state is capable of emitting light, while in the non-folded state the luminescence is silenced. Under oxidative conditions the initially folded SCNPs unfold, resulting in luminescence switch-off and the reestablishment of the initial precursor polymer. Critically, we show that the luminescence can be repeatedly silenced and reactivated. Importantly, the self-reporting character of the SCNPs was followed by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), dynamic light scattering (DLS), fluorescence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and diffusion ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY).

Graphical abstract: Self-reporting and refoldable profluorescent single-chain nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
02 Mar 2018
Accepted
29 Apr 2018
First published
30 Apr 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 4696-4702

Self-reporting and refoldable profluorescent single-chain nanoparticles

T. S. Fischer, S. Spann, Q. An, B. Luy, M. Tsotsalas, J. P. Blinco, H. Mutlu and C. Barner-Kowollik, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 4696 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC01009A

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