Breathing” Vesicles with Jellyfish-like On–Off Switchable Fluorescence Behavior†

1. Dr. Ruijiao Dong¹,
2. Prof. Bangshang Zhu²,
3. Prof. Yongfeng Zhou^1,*,
4. Deyue Yan¹,
5. Xinyuan Zhu^1,2,*

Article first published online: 12 OCT 2012

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201206362

Controlled, deep breathing: Polymeric vesicles that exhibit reversible pH-induced “breathing” behavior accompanied by switchable fluorescence (see picture) were prepared through the aqueous self-assembly of an amphiphilic block copolymer. Mechanistic studies showed that this jellyfish-like breathing and light-emitting behavior originates from protonation- or deprotonation-induced changes in the conformation of the azobenzene chromophores.