Fluorescence Imaging: Bright Far‐Red/Near‐Infrared Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles for In Vivo Bioimaging (Small 18/2013)

B. Liu and co-workers report on page 3093 a new strategy to realize bight farred/near-infrared (FR/NIR) fluorescent conjugated polymer (CP) nanoparticles (NPs) through polymer design and matrix encapsulation. The obtained NPs have 27% quantum yield in aqueous media with improved thermal-/photo-stabilities and larger Stokes shift as compared to commercially available quantum dots (Qdot 655) and organic dyes (Alexa Fluor 555 and Rhodamine 6G). In vivo studies of the NPs on a hepatoma H22 tumorbearing mouse model reveal that they could serve as an efficient and safe FR/NIR fluorescent probe for targeted in vivo fluorescence imaging and cancer in a high contrast and specific manner.