Microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions for rapid synthesis of AIE-active fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles by post-polymerization method

•Aggregation-induced emission fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles•Microwave-assisted multicomponent reactions•The experimental conditions of Kabachnik-Fields reaction are rather mild.•The PEGMA-TPE FPNs possess excellent properties and promising for bioimaging applications.

The development of simple and effective methods for synthesis of fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles (FPNs) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) plays an important role for the biomedical applications of AIE-active FPNs. In present work, we developed a facile strategy for the fabrication of AIE-active FPNs by a post-polymerization method based on the microwave-assisted Kabachnik-Fields (KF) reaction, which can conjugate with poly(PEGMA-NH2), AIE-active dye (TPE-CHO) and diethyl phosphate (DP) under microwave irradiation within 5 min. The characterization results confirm that PEGMA-TPE FPNs are successfully prepared through the microwave-assisted KF reaction. The resultant AIE-active FPNs show high water dispersity, intensive fluorescence and low cytotoxicity. These features make these AIE-active FPNs great potential for biomedical applications. Moreover, the microwave-assisted KF reaction is simple, fast, atom economy that should be a general strategy for the fabrication of various multifunctional AIE-active FPNs. We believe this work will open up a new avenue for the preparation of AIE-active functional materials with great potential for different applications.

Graphical abstractA novel microwave-assisted Kabachnik-Fields reaction was reported for the fabrication of fluorescent polymeric nanoparticles with aggregation-induced emission feature and utilized for biological imaging applications.Download high-res image (121KB)Download full-size image