Fabrication of aggregation induced emission dye-based fluorescent organic nanoparticles via emulsion polymerization and their cell imaging applications

Aggregation induced emission (AIE) dye-based fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) have recently emerged as novel fluorescent bioprobes due to their remarkable optical properties, water solubility and biocompatibility. In this work, a novel strategy for the fabrication of AIE-based FONs was developed via emulsion polymerization for the first time. During this procedure, a polymerizable AIE dye (named as PhE) with a double bond end functional group was facilely incorporated into the hydrophobic core of polymer nanoparticles. The obtained polymer nanoparticles (named as PhE-Pst NPs) exhibited strong fluorescence and high water dispersibility owing to the partial aggregation of PhE and the surface covered with a hydrophilic shell. More importantly, these FONs showed spherical morphology, uniform size (about 200 nm) and excellent biocompatibility, making them promising for bioimaging applications.