Rapid preparation of branched and degradable AIE-active fluorescent organic nanoparticles via formation of dynamic phenyl borate bond

Abstract

The fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FNPs) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) feature have received increasing attention for their advanced optical properties. Although many efforts have been devoted to the fabrication and biomedical applications of AIE-active FNPs, the preparation of branched AIE-active FNPs with degradability through formation of dynamic bonds have rarely been reported. In this work, branched AIE-active FNPs were fabricated via dynamic linkage of hydrophobic hyperbranched and degradable Boltorn H40 (H40) with phenylboronic acid terminated AIE dye (PhB(OH)2) and mPEG (mPEG-B(OH)2), which relied on a facile one-pot strategy between phenylboronic acid and diol group of H40. The branched H40-star-mPEG-PhB(OH)2 FNPs were characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Benefiting from their highly branched structure and amphiphilic properties, H40-star-mPEG-PhB(OH)2 could self-assemble into micelles and emit strong orange-red fluorescence. More importantly, cell viability results demonstrated that H40-star-mPEG-PhB(OH)2 FNPs showed good biocompatibility and promising candidates for bio-imaging. Taken together, we developed a one-pot strategy for preparation of branched AIE-active FNPs through the formation of dynamic phenyl borate. The resultant H40-star-mPEG-PhB(OH)2 FNPs should be promising biomaterials for different applications for biodegradability of H40 and responsiveness of phenyl borate.