Tailoring the morphology of AIEgen fluorescent nanoparticles for optimal cellular uptake and imaging efficacy

The rational design of robust fluorescent organic materials for long-term cell tracing is still challenging, and aggregation-caused quenching of emission is a big limitation of this strategy. Organic dyes with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) can effectively address this problem. Herein, AIEgen-containing nanoparticles, with different morphologies and emission, were prepared by assembling amphiphilic copolymers with an AIEgen. We compared the physical and chemical properties of rod-like and spherical nanoparticles, particularly investigating the effects of the shape on internalization and the imaging effect. The formulated nanoparticles exhibit advantageous features, such as a large Stokes shift, robust stability in physiological conditions, strong fluorescent emission, and photobleaching resistance. Interestingly, the rod-like nanoparticles were internalized more efficiently than their spherical counterparts, and their strong green fluorescence can still be clearly observed even after 15 days and . This work demonstrates the great potential of regulating the morphology of nanoparticles to obtain an ideal biological function.