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.