Boott Charlotte E, Laine Romain F, Mahou Pierre, Finnegan John R, Leitao Erin M, Webb Stephen E D, Kaminski Clemens F, Manners Ian
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS (UK).
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3RA (UK).
Chemistry. 2015 Dec 14;21(51):18539-42. doi: 10.1002/chem.201504100. Epub 2015 Nov 10.
Analytical methods that enable visualization of nanomaterials derived from solution self-assembly processes in organic solvents are highly desirable. Herein, we demonstrate the use of stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED) and single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) to map living crystallization-driven block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly in organic media at the sub-diffraction scale. Four different dyes were successfully used for single-colour super-resolution imaging of the BCP nanostructures allowing micelle length distributions to be determined in situ. Dual-colour SMLM imaging was used to measure and compare the rate of addition of red fluorescent BCP to the termini of green fluorescent seed micelles to generate block comicelles. Although well-established for aqueous systems, the results highlight the potential of super-resolution microscopy techniques for the interrogation of self-assembly processes in organic media.
非常需要能够实现对有机溶剂中溶液自组装过程衍生的纳米材料进行可视化的分析方法。在此，我们展示了使用受激发射损耗显微镜（STED）和单分子定位显微镜（SMLM）在亚衍射尺度下对有机介质中活性结晶驱动的嵌段共聚物（BCP）自组装进行成像。四种不同的染料成功用于BCP纳米结构的单颜色超分辨率成像，从而能够原位确定胶束长度分布。双色SMLM成像用于测量和比较红色荧光BCP添加到绿色荧光种子胶束末端以生成嵌段复合胶束的速率。尽管在水性体系中已得到充分确立，但结果突出了超分辨率显微镜技术在研究有机介质中自组装过程方面的潜力。
