Designing Sub-2 nm Organosilica Nanohybrids for Far-Field Super-Resolution Imaging

Abstract

Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy enables ultrastructural imaging of biological samples with high spatiotemporal resolution. STED nanoprobes based on fluorescent organosilica nanohybrids featuring sub-2 nm size and near-unity quantum yield are presented. The spin–orbit coupling (SOC) of heavy-atom-rich organic fluorophores is mitigated through a silane-molecule-mediated condensation/dehalogenation process, resulting in bright fluorescent organosilica nanohybrids with multiple emitters in one hybrid nanodot. When harnessed as STED nanoprobes, these fluorescent nanohybrids show intense photoluminescence, high biocompatibility, and long-term photostability. Taking advantage of the low-power excitation (0.5 μW), prolonged singlet-state lifetime, and negligible depletion-induced re-excitation, these STED nanohybrids present high depletion efficiency (>96 %), extremely low saturation intensity (0.54 mW, ca. 0.188 MW cm−2), and ultra-high lateral resolution (ca. λem/28).