A water-soluble conjugated polymer brush with multihydroxy dendritic side chains

作者：Zhou, Li; Geng, Junlong; Wang, Guan; Liu, Jie; Liu, Bin^*

来源：Polymer Chemistry, 2013, 4(20): 5243-5251.

DOI：10.1039/c3py21080d

• WEIGHT HYPERBRANCHED POLYGLYCEROLS
• OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES
• SOLAR-CELLS
• POLYELECTROLYTES
• DNA
• NANOPARTICLES
• COPOLYMERS
• DOTS
• POLYTHIOPHENE
• CHROMOPHORE

A brush-like water-soluble conjugated polymer bearing a poly[9,9'-dihexylfluorene-co-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PFBT) backbone and multihydroxy hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) side chains is facilely synthesized by combination of "grafting from" strategy and the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) technique. The PFBT-g-HPG brush shows bright fluorescence in water with an emission maximum at 587 nm and a quantum yield of 15%. Laser light scattering (LLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analyses reveal that PFBT-g-HPG adopts a spherical shape in water and a wormlike conformation in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). PFBT-g-HPG shows stable fluorescence against the variation of pH and ionic strength as well as interference of biomolecules. MCF-7 cancer cell imaging results show that the PFBT-g-HPG exhibits low cytotoxicity and high photostability, which allows fluorescence imaging in a high contrast manner. On the basis of the numerous hydroxyl groups of the grafted HPG, post-functionalization of PFBT-g-HPG could afford various PFBT-g-HPG-based brushes with adjustable surface functionality (e.g., carboxylic groups) and solubility. This study thus provides a versatile brush approach to water-soluble conjugated polymers for advanced sensing and imaging applications.

• 出版日期2013