Integration of Organic Fluorophores in the Surface of Polymer-Coated Colloidal Nanoparticles for Sensing the Local Polarity of the Environment

Inorganic hydrophobically capped NPs such as quantum dots, superparamagnetic iron oxide, or gold nanoparticles can be modified to make them water-soluble by their embedding in an amphiphilic polymer shell. This polymer shell can be prefunctionalized by the integration of organic fluorophores, which allows the observation of the nanoparticles with fluorescence based techniques. The fluorophore could be either located more in the hydrophobic part of the inner polymer shell, or on the hydrophilic surface pointing towards solution. Herein we prepared gold nanoparticles decorated with the organic fluorophore FE, 4'-N,N-diethylamino-3-hydroxyflavone (FE), which possesses fluorescence sensitive to the polarity and hydrogen-bonding properties of the surrounding local environment. Based on the response of FE in the polymer shell to isopropanol, and CTAB compared to the response of free FE we conclude that the FE fluorophore is situated within the inner polymer shell. Nevertheless the fluorophore in the polymer shell can still sense polarity changes in solution.