writer：Mingju Xue, Jian Chen, Yubin Zhang, Le Liu, Yuqi Li, Chonghua Zhang, Peisheng Zhang, Susanne Sihler,
keywords：Dye stabilizer; Miniemulsion polymerization; FRET; AIE; Nanoparticles
source：期刊
Issue time：2020年

Recent studies have shown that water-soluble fluorescent dyes can be used as

miniemulsion stabilizers to avoid a series of deficiencies in traditional stabilizers.

However, visual means to demonstrate the stabilizing performance of water-soluble

dyes are still scarce. In this study, the principle of fluorescence resonance energy

transfer (FRET) is combined with dual emission of fluorescent polystyrene

nanoparticles prepared by miniemulsion polymerization. For this purpose, 4-(1,2,2

triphenylethyl) phenylundecene-10-enoate (TPE-Aly) was employed as aggregation

induced emission (AIE) dye and donor and Eosin Y as acceptor and stabilizer. The

polymer molecular weight, particle size and size distribution of the nanoparticles were

optimized by regulating the amount of Eosin Y and ultrasonication time, respectively.

The average number of Eosin Y molecules per nanoparticle was firstly estimated by

combining dialysis and Lambert-Beer law. FRET between TPE-Aly and Eosin Y

indicates the presence of Eosin Y on the surface of the polymer nanoparticles. With

increasing concentration of Eosin Y, the as-prepared dual-emission nanoparticles

display a decreasing particle size along with an enhancing FRET efficiency. Moreover,

various stability tests show that Eosin Y can be used as an excellent stabilizer for

miniemulsion polymerization and has broad application prospects in the field of

functional materials research.