Mesoporous nature of silica nanoparticles provides a novel platform for development of ultrabright fluorescent particles, which have molecular fluorescent dyes physically incapsulated inside the pores. Close proximity of the dye molecules gives the advantage of building sensors using FRET coupling between different dyes. Here we present the use of this approach to demonstrate assembly of a fluorescent ratiometric sensor capable of simultaneous pH and temperature measurements. For this purpose, FRET pairs of temperature, pH sensing, and reference dyes were physically encapsulated inside porous silica matrix of 40 nm particles. We demonstrate that the particles can be used to measure both the temperature in 25 to 45°C and pH in 7 to 4 range with the error of 1°C and 0.1 respectively. We will demonstrate the use of these sensors to study the working of cell mitochondria.

Ultrabright fluorescent silica nanosensors for dual pH and temperature measurements

256th National Meeting (2018)

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