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Confinement of Dyes inside Boron Nitride Nanotubes: Photostable and Shifted Fluorescence down to the Near Infrared
Author(s) -
Allard Charlotte,
Schué Léonard,
Fossard Frédéric,
Recher Gaëlle,
Nascimento Rafaella,
Flahaut Emmanuel,
Loiseau Annick,
Desjardins Patrick,
Martel Richard,
Gaufrès Etienne
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.202001429
Subject(s) - fluorescence , boron nitride , photochemistry , nanotechnology , passivation , materials science , picosecond , daphnia pulex , photobleaching , chemistry , daphnia , ecology , laser , physics , layer (electronics) , quantum mechanics , crustacean , optics , biology
Fluorescence is ubiquitous in life science and used in many fields of research ranging from ecology to medicine. Among the most common fluorogenic compounds, dyes are being exploited in bioimaging for their outstanding optical properties from UV down to the near IR (NIR). However, dye molecules are often toxic to living organisms and photodegradable, which limits the time window for in vivo experiments. Here, it is demonstrated that organic dye molecules are passivated and photostable when they are encapsulated inside a boron nitride nanotube (dyes@BNNT). The results show that the BNNTs drive an aggregation of the encapsulated dyes, which induces a redshifted fluorescence from visible to NIR‐II. The fluorescence remains strong and stable, exempt of bleaching and blinking, over a time scale longer than that of free dyes by more than 10 4 . This passivation also reduces the toxicity of the dyes and induces exceptional chemical robustness, even in harsh conditions. These properties are highlighted in bioimaging where the dyes@BNNT nanohybrids are used as fluorescent nanoprobes for in vivo monitoring of Daphnia Pulex microorganisms and for diffusion tracking on human hepatoblastoma cells with two‐photon imaging.