A facile approach for the preparation of supramolecular polymer-based fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) is reported. FNPs with homogeneous shape and size distribution are fabricated from low-molecular-weight molecules, and thus, different compositional constituents can be efficiently incorporated via copolymerization. The emission color of the FNPs covers a wide region from blue to near infrared and can be easily tuned using efficient excitation energy transfer. The photoswitchable fluorescent nanoparticles with high on–off fluorescence contrast are also simply prepared by copolymerization of monomers containing a fluorophore and a photochromic unit. Our FNPs are successfully applied in living cell imaging and as fluorescent inks. 

Advanced Functional Materials, 2016