Dual Function of Eosin Y in Miniemulsion Polymerization: Stabilizer and FRET Acceptor
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.