POLYIONIC TRANSITIONAL METAL PHOSPHORESCENT COMPLEX/POLYMER HYBRID SYSTEMS FOR BIOIMAGING AND SENSING APPLICATIONS

摘要

A new technique to stabilize transition metal phosphors in a wide variety of stimuli-sensitive polymers and gels is disclosed herein. Other than stabilization in stimuli sensitive/biocompatible matrix some of these transition metal based phosphors are also shown to act as phosphorescent crosslinkers that physically or chemically crosslink polymeric chains to form micro/nanoparticles. The microspheres/nanospheres of the present invention show decreased size and photoluminescence enhancement with particularly high sensitization at physiological pH and temperature. The so formed phosphorescent micro/nanospheres are useful for biological or environmental applications including biological labeling, imaging, and optical sensing. The techniques in the present invention enable usage of imaging agents and sensors at very low concentrations and also minimize or eliminate the usage of toxic chemical crosslinkers typically used to synthesize polymeric micro/nanoparticles.