From Event: SPIE LASE, 2019
Methods of femtosecond laser ablation in deionized water were used to fabricate ultrasmall (< 2 nm), bare (ligand-free) organic luminophore DCEtDCS nanoparticles, which exhibit aggregation enhanced emission in the green range (533 nm) with the quantum yield exceeding 58% and provide no concentration quenching. In contrast to chemically synthesized counterparts, laser-synthesized DCEtDCS nanoparticles do not contain any organic impurities due to their preparation in aqueous medium and do not require surfactants to stabilize colloidal solutions, which makes them highly suitable for intracellular uptake and bioimaging. The highly negative surface charge of these nanoparticles impeded their cellular uptake, but when the surface was coated with chitosan, a cationic polymer, intracellular uptake in microglia was achieved. Using in vitro model, we finally demonstrate the efficient employment of ultrasmall and surfactant free fluorescent organic nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation as markers in bioimaging.
© (2019) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
C.-K. Lim, A. A. Popov, G. Tselikov, J. Heo, A. Pliss, S. Kim, A. V. Kabashin, and P. N. Prasad, "Laser-ablative synthesis of aggregation-induced enhanced emission luminophore dyes in aqueous solutions ," Proc. SPIE 10907, Synthesis and Photonics of Nanoscale Materials XVI, 109070U (Presented at SPIE LASE: February 03, 2019; Published: 4 March 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2513821.