A facile method for preparation of dye-doped silica-based raspberry-like microspheres and fluorescent films

Fluorescent silica microspheres encapsulating dye molecules have been demonstrated to be very useful in a variety of applications in biological fields due to its excellent properties such as high fluorescent intensity because thousands of dye molecules can be concentrated to respond fluorescent signals at the same time. Herein, we present a facile method for preparing raspberry-like dye-doped silica microspheres (RLDDSM) and RLDDSM film with dual-size hierarchical surfaces by the utility of poly(vinylpyridine) (PVP) as the only employed adhesives. Importantly, in comparison to one of the dye-doped silica particles, the fluorescent signals of RLDDSM can be greatly enhanced to possess higher fluorescent intensity. Additionally, the surface morphology and the fluorescent intensity of RLDDSM can be well controlled by changing experimental parameters.