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Development of Ultrabright Semiconducting Polymer Dots for Ratiometric pH Sensing

Development of Ultrabright Semiconducting Polymer Dots for Ratiometric pH Sensing

Yang-Hsiang Chan, Changfeng Wu, Fangmao Ye, Yuhui Jin, Polina B Smith, Daniel T Chiu

Anal Chem. 2011 Feb 15;83(4):1448-55.

PMID: 21244093

Abstract:

Semiconducting polymer-based nanoparticles (Pdots) have recently emerged as a new class of ultrabright probes for biological detection and imaging. This paper describes the development of poly(2,5-di(3',7'-dimethyloctyl)phenylene-1,4-ethynylene) (PPE) Pdots as a platform for designing Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based ratiometric pH nanoprobes. We describe and compare three routes for coupling the pH-sensitive dye, fluorescein, to PPE Pdots, which is a pH-insensitive semiconducting polymer. This approach offers a rapid and robust sensor for pH determination using the ratiometric methodology where excitation at a single wavelength results in two emission peaks, one that is pH sensitive and the other one that is pH insensitive for use as an internal reference. The linear range for pH sensing of the fluorescein-coupled Pdots is between pH 5.0 and 8.0, which is suitable for most cellular studies. The pH-sensitive Pdots show excellent reversibility and stability in pH measurements. In this paper, we use them to measure the intracellular pH in HeLa cells following their uptake by endocytosis, thus demonstrating their utility for use in cellular and imaging experiments.

Chemicals Related in the Paper:

Catalog Number	Product Name	Structure	CAS Number	Price
AP211809711	Poly(2,5-di(3′,7′-dimethyloctyl)phenylene-1,4-ethynylene)		211809-71-1	Price
AP336625877	Poly(2,5-dioctylphenylene-1,4-ethynylene)		336625-87-7	Price

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