Issue 37, 2015

Nanohybrid conjugated polyelectrolytes: highly photostable and ultrabright nanoparticles

Abstract

We present a general and straightforward one-step approach to enhance the photophysical properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes. Upon complexation with an amphiphilic polymer (polyvinylpyrrolidone), an anionic conjugated polyelectrolyte (poly[5-methoxy-2-(3-sulfopropoxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene]) was prepared into small nanoparticles with exceptional photostability and brightness. The polymer fluorescence intensity was enhanced by 23 -fold and could be easily tuned by changing the order of addition. Single molecule experiments revealed a complete suppression of blinking. In addition, after only losing 18% of the original intensity, a remarkable amount of photons were emitted per particle (∼109, on average). This number is many folds greater than popular organic fluorescent dyes. We believe that an intimate contact between the two polymers is shielding the conjugated polyelectrolyte from the destructive photooxidation. The prepared nanohybrid particles will prove instrumental in single particle based fluorescent assays and can serve as a probe for the current state-of-the-art bioimaging fluorescence techniques.

Graphical abstract: Nanohybrid conjugated polyelectrolytes: highly photostable and ultrabright nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 May 2015
Accepted
21 Jul 2015
First published
27 Jul 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 15149-15158

Author version available

Nanohybrid conjugated polyelectrolytes: highly photostable and ultrabright nanoparticles

G. H. Darwish and P. Karam, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 15149 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR03299G

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