Hybrid semiconducting polymer nanoparticles as polarization-sensitive fluorescent probes

摘要

Much work has been done on collapsed chains of conjugated semiconducting polymers and their applications as fluorescent probes or sensors. On surfaces spin-coated with semiconducting polymers, excitation energy transfer along the polymer backbone can be used to quickly and efficiently funnel energy to chromophores with localized energy minima. If each chromophore is immobilized within its matrix, this can result in large fluorescence anisotropy. Through nanoprecipitation of a matrix polymer blended at low mass ratios with short-chain, hydrophobic, fluorescent semiconducting polymers, we take advantage of this large fluorescence anisotropy to make polarization-sensitive nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are small at approximately 7 nm in diameter; exhibit a high quantum yield of 0.75; and are easily functionalized to bind to protein targets. By exciting the nanoparticles with polarized light on a wide-field fluorescence microscope, we are able to monitor not only protein location, but also changes in their orientation.