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Multicolor Photo‐Crosslinkable AIEgens toward Compact Nanodots for Subcellular Imaging and STED Nanoscopy
Author(s) -
Fang Xiaofeng,
Chen Xuanze,
Li Rongqin,
Liu Zhihe,
Chen Haobin,
Sun Zezhou,
Ju Bo,
Liu Yifei,
Zhang Sean XiaoAn,
Ding Dan,
Sun Yujie,
Wu Changfeng
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201702128
Subject(s) - bioconjugation , sted microscopy , nanodot , nanotechnology , materials science , surface modification , oxetane , streptavidin , fluorescence , stimulated emission , chemistry , optics , laser , biochemistry , physics , polymer chemistry , biotin
Abstract Aggregation induced emission (AIE) has attracted considerable interest for the development of fluorescence probes. However, controlling the bioconjugation and cellular labeling of AIE dots is a challenging problem. Here, this study reports a general approach for preparing small and bioconjugated AIE dots for specific labeling of cellular targets. The strategy is based on the synthesis of oxetane‐substituted AIEgens to generate compact and ultrastable AIE dots via photo‐crosslinking. A small amount of polymer enriched with oxetane groups is cocondensed with most of the AIEgens to functionalize the nanodot surface for subsequent streptavidin bioconjugation. Due to their small sizes, good stability, and surface functionalization, the cell‐surface markers and subcellular structures are specifically labeled by the AIE dot bioconjugates. Remarkably, stimulated emission depletion imaging with AIE dots is achieved for the first time, and the spatial resolution is significantly enhanced to ≈95 nm. This study provides a general approach for small functional molecules for preparing small sized and ultrastable nanodots.