Tunable Ratiometric Fluorescence Sensing of Intracellular pH by Aggregation-Induced Emission-Active Hyperbranched Polymer Nanoparticles

Abstract

Recently, ratiometric pH nanosensors have emerged as a robust tool for the fluorescence sensing and imaging, but there is no report of ratiometric sensors based on hyperbranched polymers for intracellular pH sensing. Herein, we describe the first example of hyperbranched polymer-based tunable fluorescent pH nanosensor with aggregation-induced emission activity, which exhibits great potential for ratiometric sensing of intracellular pH. These polymer nanoparticles can selectively accumulate in the acidic organelles of living cells by endocytosis process, and no obvious cytotoxicity was observed. The quantitative analysis of the intracellular pH values in HeLa cells was successfully conducted based on this new sensing platform. This platform provides a new choice for future developments of ratiometric fluorescent nanosensors, targeting not only protons but also a variety of other analytes of biological interest, such as metal ions, anions, and other biomolecules.