| Affiliation: | 1. Département de génie physique, Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3A7 Canada;2. Département de chimie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7 Canada;3. Laboratoire d'Etude des Microstructures, ONERA-CNRS, UMR104, Université Paris-Saclay, BP 72, Châtillon, 92322 France;4. CNRS & Institut d'Optique, UMR 5298, Talence, F-33400 France LP2N, Laboratoire Photonique Numerique et Nanosciences, University of Bordeaux, Talence, F-33400 France;5. CIRIMAT, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, UMR CNRS-UPS-INP N°5085, Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier, Bât. CIRIMAT, 118, route de Narbonne, Toulouse, 31062 France |
| Abstract: | Fluorescence is ubiquitous in life science and used in many fields of research ranging from ecology to medicine. Among the most common fluorogenic compounds, dyes are being exploited in bioimaging for their outstanding optical properties from UV down to the near IR (NIR). However, dye molecules are often toxic to living organisms and photodegradable, which limits the time window for in vivo experiments. Here, it is demonstrated that organic dye molecules are passivated and photostable when they are encapsulated inside a boron nitride nanotube (dyes@BNNT). The results show that the BNNTs drive an aggregation of the encapsulated dyes, which induces a redshifted fluorescence from visible to NIR-II. The fluorescence remains strong and stable, exempt of bleaching and blinking, over a time scale longer than that of free dyes by more than 104. This passivation also reduces the toxicity of the dyes and induces exceptional chemical robustness, even in harsh conditions. These properties are highlighted in bioimaging where the dyes@BNNT nanohybrids are used as fluorescent nanoprobes for in vivo monitoring of Daphnia Pulex microorganisms and for diffusion tracking on human hepatoblastoma cells with two-photon imaging. |
