The design of new materials with large two-photon absorption crossections holds great interest because of its potential application as biomarker and in drug delivery systems. Although, a number of organic fluorophores with high two-photon action crossection were reported before, their utility in biomedicine has been limited by their hydrophobicity and cell toxicity. Recently, quantum dots have demonstrated large two-photon-absorption crossection but their cell toxicity limits their application for bioimaging. Conjugated polymer with high fluorescence quantum yield and large extinction coefficients also exhibits large two-photon absorption crossection. But their intrinsic hydrophobicity limits their application for bioimaging. Towards this end, conjugated polymer and oligomer based nanoparticle in aqueous dispersion maybe suitable candidate. Here, we report the fabrication of monodisperse nanoparticles from a novel synthesized oligothiophene by mini-emulsion technique and their two-photon-fluorescence properties. These nanoparticles show strong two-photon-fluorescence in aqueous dispersion. These nanoparticles are biocompatible as demonstrated by cell toxicity test. Two-Photon-fluorescence microscopy imaging confirmed cellular uptake of these nanoparticles by THP-1 cells.

Oligothiophene nanoparticles for high contrast imaging of cancerous cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

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