ABSTRACT
Optically active and electronically tunable conducting polymers (CPs) hold promise for future opportunities in bioimaging. With the advances in manufacturing technologies, CPs and their derivatives with high fluorescence brightness, high cytocompatibility, excellent photostability, easy processability, and adjustable electroluminescence can be fabricated. There are several types of CPs as well as conjugated polymers based on optoelectronic properties. To get desired characteristics for imaging, CPs backbone can be modified. More specifically, CP nanoparticles (NPs) are one of the highly explored types for bioimaging due to their high surface area, flexible optical response, well-established synthesis routes, and high quantum yield. NPs of CPs synthesized using mini-emulsion and precipitation can be further functionalized for specific bioimaging. Carefully modified CPs find their applications in various domains of biomedical engineering including in vitro and in vivo fluorescence imaging, photoacoustic, photothermal therapy, particle tracking, cell organelle imaging, and biomarker detection. The current chapter provides the overview of CPs and their variants in bioimaging, together with functionalization, and applications. CPs-based imaging is still emerging and future applications may be more focused on near-infrared (NIR), Raman imaging, and recognition of complex biological moieties.
