3D confined self-assembling of QD within super-engineering block copolymers as biocompatible superparticles enabling stimulus responsive solid state fluorescence

Xiaohong He; Kun Jia; Robert Marks; Yiguo Hu; Xiaobo Liu

doi:10.1007/s12274-020-3086-0

Nano Research 2021, 14(1): 285-294 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3086-0

Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 January 2021

3D confined self-assembling of QD within super-engineering block copolymers as biocompatible superparticles enabling stimulus responsive solid state fluorescence

Show Author's Information Hide Author's Information Xiaohong He^¹, Kun Jia^¹(

), Robert Marks^², Yiguo Hu^³, Xiaobo Liu^¹

1 School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China

2 The Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel

3 State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610051, China

Keywords:

quantum dots, self-assembly, three-dimensional (3D) confinement, amphiphilic polyarylene ether nitrile, stimulus responsive fluorescence

Topics:

Biocompatibility Block copolymers Cadmium compounds Fluorescence II Semiconductor quantum dots Sols VI semiconductors Zinc sulfide

Cite this article:

He X, Jia K, Marks R, et al. 3D confined self-assembling of QD within super-engineering block copolymers as biocompatible superparticles enabling stimulus responsive solid state fluorescence. Nano Research, 2021, 14(1): 285-294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3086-0

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Abstract

Eliminating colloidal toxicity and enabling its intrinsic fluorescence in aggressive environmental conditions are the key challenges for commercializing hydrophobic cadmium based quantum dots (QD). Polyarylene ether nitriles (PEN) are an example of super-engineering thermoplastics that possess a unique combination of thermal stability, intrinsic fluorescence, biocompatibility and distinct emulsion self-assembly feature. Herein, the co-self-assembly of amphiphilic PEN with hydrophobic CdSe@ZnS QD, confined in the three-dimensional (3D) oil-in-water emulsion droplets, has been explored to fabricate fluorescent microparticles (FMP). It was found that these FMP demonstrated good biocompatibility (cell viability above 90%), while exhibiting a fluorescence emission in aqueous solution that was retained (intensity retention ratio above 80%) within the whole pH range of 1-14, as well as, after being subjected to autoclaving at 120 ^oC for 1 h. Interestingly, it was discovered that introduction of calcium ions in the emulsion self-assembly contributed to in-situ generation of phase changing nanoplates inside the FMP, which led to the photo-thermal modulated solid state fluorescence from drop-casted FMP film. Thanks to their versatile fluorescence, these FMP colloids were exploited as fluorescent probes for macrophages imaging, while micro-patterns with reversible changing of emission color were induced via thermal treatment and direct laser lithography.

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About this article

3D confined self-assembling of QD within super-engineering block copolymers as biocompatible superparticles enabling stimulus responsive solid state fluorescence

Show Author's information Hide Author's Information Xiaohong He^¹, Kun Jia^¹(

), Robert Marks^², Yiguo Hu^³, Xiaobo Liu^¹

1 School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China

2 The Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel

3 State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610051, China

Abstract

Keywords: quantum dots, self-assembly, three-dimensional (3D) confinement, amphiphilic polyarylene ether nitrile, stimulus responsive fluorescence

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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 07 July 2020

Revised: 01 September 2020

Accepted: 02 September 2020

Published: 05 January 2021

Issue date: January 2021

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51403029), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. ZYGX2019J026), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (No. 2020YFG0100) and International Science and Technology Cooperation Project from Chengdu municipal government (No. 2019-GH02-00037-HZ). K. J. thanks Prof. Yanbo Li from the IoF of UESTC for his timely assistance in fluorescence lifetime measurement.