The ability of conjugatedpolymers to act as energy donors to near-infrared emitting fluorophores hasbeen demonstrated previously. We seek to harness this energy transfer in thedesign of new organic photonic nanoparticles (OPNs) for in vivo disease detection. For this purpose two classes offluorescent polymeric nanoparticles were fabricated and fully characterizedusing a variety of techniques. Highly efficient energy transferhas been demonstrated for a variety of polymer-fluorophore combinations, evenin the absence of appreciable spectral overlap, including covalent andnon-covalent pentiptycene-containing poly(phenyleneethynylenes) with differentnear-infrared emitting squaraine, perylene and terrylene fluorophores. Severalof the particles incorporate polymers that have high two-photon absorptivities.Surface modification of the particles has also been accomplished via thesynthesis of a semi-permeable hydrogel. Efforts to measure the two-photonabsorptivity of the particles and to utilize them for biological sensing applicationsare currently in progress.

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles as platforms for efficient energy transfer

240th National Meeting (2010)

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