Nanocrystallization: A Unique Approach to Yield Bright Organic Nanocrystals for Biological Applications

S M Ali Fateminia; Zhiming Wang; Chi Ching Goh; Purnima N Manghnani; Wenbo Wu; Duo Mao; Lai Guan Ng; Zujin Zhao; Ben Zhong Tang; Bin Liu

doi:10.1002/adma.201604100

Nanocrystallization: A Unique Approach to Yield Bright Organic Nanocrystals for Biological Applications

Adv Mater. 2017 Jan;29(1). doi: 10.1002/adma.201604100. Epub 2016 Nov 2.

Authors

S M Ali Fateminia¹, Zhiming Wang², Chi Ching Goh³, Purnima N Manghnani¹, Wenbo Wu¹, Duo Mao¹, Lai Guan Ng³, Zujin Zhao², Ben Zhong Tang^{2

4}, Bin Liu^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Science Drive 4, 117585, Singapore.
² State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
³ Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Biopolis, 138648, Singapore.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
⁵ Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 2 Fusionopolis Way, Innovis, 138634, Singapore.

PMID: 27805762
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201604100

Abstract

A new bottom-up nanocrystallization method is developed to fabricate highly fluorescent organic nanocrystals in aqueous media using an aggregation-induced emission fluorogen (AIEgen) as an example. The nanocrystallization strategy leads to the fabrication of uniform nanocrystals of 110 ± 10 nm size in aqueous media, which shows over 400% increase in brightness as compared to the amorphous nanoaggregates.

Keywords: aggregation-induced emission; bioimaging; nanocrystals; organic nanoparticles; stress-induced crystallization.

MeSH terms

Nanoparticles*
Water

Substances

Water