具有可控疏水作用的发光金纳米粒子《Nano Letters》

Luminescent Gold Nanoparticles with Controllable Hydrophobic Interactions

Bing Tang, Wenle Xia, Wei Cai, and Jinbin Liu*

Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Engineering of Guangdong Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, China

Nano Lett. 2022, XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX

Publication Date: October 10, 2022

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02486

Abstract

The construction of luminescent gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with highly redshifted emission in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) and good biocompatibility is still challenging. Herein, using an amphiphilic block copolymer (ABC) template with controllable hydrophobic interactions in the diverse forms of unimers and micelles, we report a facile strategy for redshifting the emission and enhancing the biological interactions of luminescent AuNPs. While the uniform clusters of NIR-II AuNPs are formed in situ inside the hydrophobic cores of ABC micelles with strong interparticle hydrophobic interactions and enhanced emission at 1080 nm with a high quantum yield (QY) of 1.6%, the rigid NIR-II AuNPs are generated with strong intraparticle hydrophobic interactions as ABC unimers on the surface, leading to a redshifted emission of 1280 nm with a QY of 0.25% and enhancing the affinities toward injured intestinal mucosa in colitis imaging. These findings open new possibilities for the design of highly redshifted luminescent AuNPs with enhanced biological interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• luminescent gold nanoparticle

• hydrophobic interaction

• emission

• redshift

• imaging

SUBJECTS:

• Hydrophobicity,

• Luminescence,

• Metal nanoparticles,

• Micelles,

• Molecular mechanics