Facile Incorporation of “Aggregation-Induced Emission”-Active Conjugated Polymer into Mesoporous Silica Hollow Nanospheres: Synthesis, Characterization, Photophysical Studies, and Application in Bioimaging

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b07664
• Publication Date: 2019-07-26T20:13:43Z
• Authors: Sengottuvelu Dine...; Abhishek Raj; Abhilasha Srivastava; Sudeshna Mukherjee; Sheik Saleem Pasha; Vishal Kachwal; Leena Fageria; Rajdeep Chowdhury; Inamur Rahaman La...
• Keywords: Triphenylamine; Tetraphenylethylene; Solvatochromism; Biocompatibility; Functional Polymers

Typical aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens tetraphenylethylene (TPE) and triphenylamine have been used to construct an AIE-active conjugated polymer, namely, poly(N,N-diphenyl-4-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)styryl)aniline) (PTPA), which consist of D-π-A architecture by Wittig polymerization. We fabricated mesoporous silica hollow nanospheres (MSHNs) were encapsulated with the polymer for applications in cellular imaging. It exhibits a positive solvatochromism effect increasing solvent polarity, supported theoretical calculation using density functional theory. The structure monomers was confirmed Fourier transform infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques. Considering advantage high brightness fluorescence PTPA, it into MSHNs noncovalent approach, surface functionalized anti-EpCAM (antiepithelial cell adhesion molecule) aptamer through conjugation γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane targeting cancer cells specifically. aptamer-functionalized Apt-MSHNs exhibited excellent biocompatibility liver cancer-Huh-7 this study efficiently internalized these cells. Because EpCAM are overexpressed multiple carcinomas, including cancer, aptamer-conjugated AIE therefore good candidates targeted imaging applications.