Supracolloidal Chains of Patchy Micelles Triggering Förster Resonance Energy Transfer upon Their Growth for Macroscopic Monitoring of Colloidal Assembly.
- 1Department of Chemistry, Seoul National University, Seoul08826, Republic of Korea.
Abstract
Formation of supracolloidal chains from patchy micelles of diblock copolymers can provide valuable information to understand mechanisms and kinetics of colloidal and molecular assemblies. Direct observation of the assembled supracolloidal chains using microscopy enables statistical evaluation of the progress of the assembly, but sample preparation and data analysis processes prohibit the determination of chain length in the solution state. Here, we demonstrate supracolloidal chains induced from fluorescent diblock copolymers that can self-report the extension of chain length by a shift in emission color. Patchy micelles are engineered to perform Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) interactions that respond spontaneously upon colloidal assembly. For this purpose, fluorophore-functionalized diblock copolymers are designed and synthesized to form patchy micelles incorporated with fluorescent dyes selectively at the patches. Then, two different patchy micelles containing FRET donors or acceptors are prepared and coassembled into supracolloidal chains. The merging of patches between adjacent micelles enables the FRET pairs to come into vicinity inside the patches, allowing the enhancement of red emission occurred by FRET upon the supracolloidal coassembly. The shift in emission color from yellow to scarlet provides macroscopic evidence that can monitor the progress of colloidal assembly simply by observing photoluminescence. Moreover, quantitative analysis of the FRET interaction can be interpreted using step-growth polymerization kinetics, permitting facile real-time tracking of chain length during the progress of colloidal assembly. Lastly, colocalization of FRET pairs within single micelles enabled direct monitoring of solution-state behavior in patchy micelles and colloidal assemblies, which could not be revealed by microscopic structural analysis.
Related
- Pearl-necklace nano-chains from tomato peel lycopene carbon dots: Enhanced Colloidal stability, ph sensing, and antibacterial monitoring.
- Alteromonas macleodii breaches the diatom frustule triggering protoplast emergence and programmed necrosis-like death in Thalassiosira rotula
- Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels for Mucosal Drug Delivery: Synthesis, Triggering Strategies, and Therapeutic Applications
- 6-Chloropyridinyl Benzoate Fragments as Selective Anti-Melanoma Scaffolds Triggering ROS-Mediated Mitochondrial Apoptosis
- Surfactant-free alcohol-mediated colloidal syntheses of gold nanoparticles beyond aqueous media
BibTeX
@article{kim2026supracolloidal,
title = {{Supracolloidal Chains of Patchy Micelles Triggering Förster Resonance Energy Transfer upon Their Growth for Macroscopic Monitoring of Colloidal Assembly.}},
author = {Sangyoon Kim and Kyungtae Kim and Jaemin Kim and Kyunghyeon Lee and Byeong-Hyeok Sohn},
journal = {ACS nano},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1021/acsnano.6c12047},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916080},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Supracolloidal Chains of Patchy Micelles Triggering Förster Resonance Energy Transfer upon Their Growth for Macroscopic Monitoring of Colloidal Assembly.
AU - Sangyoon Kim
AU - Kyungtae Kim
AU - Jaemin Kim
AU - Kyunghyeon Lee
AU - Byeong-Hyeok Sohn
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - ACS nano
DO - 10.1021/acsnano.6c12047
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42916080
AB - Formation of supracolloidal chains from patchy micelles of diblock copolymers can provide valuable information to understand mechanisms and kinetics of colloidal and molecular assemblies. Direct observation of the assembled supracolloidal chains using microscopy enables statistical evaluation of the progress of the assembly, but sample preparation and data analysis processes prohibit the determination of chain length in the solution state. Here, we demonstrate supracolloidal chains induced from fluorescent diblock copolymers that can self-report the extension of chain length by a shift in emission color. Patchy micelles are engineered to perform Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) interactions that respond spontaneously upon colloidal assembly. For this purpose, fluorophore-functionalized diblock copolymers are designed and synthesized to form patchy micelles incorporated with fluorescent dyes selectively at the patches. Then, two different patchy micelles containing FRET donors or acceptors are prepared and coassembled into supracolloidal chains. The merging of patches between adjacent micelles enables the FRET pairs to come into vicinity inside the patches, allowing the enhancement of red emission occurred by FRET upon the supracolloidal coassembly. The shift in emission color from yellow to scarlet provides macroscopic evidence that can monitor the progress of colloidal assembly simply by observing photoluminescence. Moreover, quantitative analysis of the FRET interaction can be interpreted using step-growth polymerization kinetics, permitting facile real-time tracking of chain length during the progress of colloidal assembly. Lastly, colocalization of FRET pairs within single micelles enabled direct monitoring of solution-state behavior in patchy micelles and colloidal assemblies, which could not be revealed by microscopic structural analysis.
SN - 1936-0851
SN - 1936-086X
ER -