The carbon nanoparticles grafted with copolymers of styrene and spiropyran with reversibly photoswitchable fluorescence

A kind of photoswitchable nanoparticles which are the fluorescent carbon nanoparticles grafted with the copolymers of styrene and spiropyran (f-CNP-g-poly(St-co-SP) is reported. The f-CNP-g-poly(St-co-SP) not only feature the reversibly photoswitchable fluorescence, but also have good processability. Their fluorescence could be reversibly switched between blue-green and red by using ultraviolet/visible light irradiation. Furthermore, they could be readily processed into nanofibers with reversibly photoswitchable fluorescence by electrospinning. They can be potentially applied in fabricating microdevice, optical switching, information storage, anti-counterfeiting as well as biological imaging.