Pyrene-Decorated Thermally Responsive Luminescent Nanoparticles: The Effect of Copolymer Micelle Morphology
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Pyrene and its derivatives are widely utilized for their fluorescent behavior, and excimer formation allows the study of molecular structural behavior. Hence, it was hypothesized that surface-decorated block copolymer nano-objects would make suitable materials for studying such interactions. Pyrene-decorated polymer nano-objects were successfully synthesized through reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT)-mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). Specifically, various morphologies (spheres, worms, and vesicles) of pyrene-functionalized poly(glycerol methacrylate- b -hydroxypropyl methacrylate) (Py-P(GMA- b -HPMA)) were prepared by precisely controlling the degree of polymerization of the core-forming PHPMA block and temperature. These pyrene-functionalized nano-objects were used to study the influence of morphology on their photoluminescent behavior by comparing the emission intensity ratio between pyrene excimers ( I e ) and monomers ( I m ). It was found that with increasing particle size or transitioning to higher-order morphologies, I e / I m increased due to lower surface curvature. Thus, pyrene end-functional block copolymers serve as useful fluorescent probes to investigate changes in nanoparticle morphology and aggregation.
Source: Macromolecules
Authors: Xueyuan Li, Zhidong Luo, Lee A. Fielding
Language: English
Subfield: Organic Chemistry
Field: Chemistry
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1015058392, G2113607801, G2158237762, G2703599441, G3305536412, G3849194948, Sir Henry Royce Institute - Manchester and NNL Equipment, G504327055, G5424142534, G5752813835, Sir Henry Royce Institute - Manchester Build, G6148779978, G6188461579, The Royce: Capitalising on the investment, G708391930, G7445816383, G7514479249, Sir Henry Royce InsStitute - recurrent grant, G87373762, G8841701813
OpenAlex ID: W4411143090