pH- and glucose-responsive core-shell hybrid nanoparticles with controllable metal-enhanced fluorescence effects

In this paper, a novel core-shell hybrid nanoparticle with a silver core and cross-linked poly(3-acrylamidephenylboronic acid-co-acrylic acid) shell (Ag@PAPBA-PAA) was reported. The prepared hybrid nanoparticles can exhibit good responsiveness to the glucose concentration and pH of the environment and exhibit a responsive swelling and shrinking behavior. Tuned by the glucose concentration or pH, a swelling of up to 15.0 nm thickness of the hybrid nanoparticle shell can be observed. These unique responsive properties can be employed to tune the metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) effects of the incorporated Ag cores. The fluorescence of adsorbed positively charged porphyrin molecules (Por(4+)) shows good sensitivity to the glucose concentration and pH with an enhancement of up to about 1.8-fold. These functional hybrid nanoparticles with tunable MEF effects show a great potential application in the fields of responsive fluorescent sensing and detection.