Aggregation-induced emission-active Au nanoclusters for ratiometric sensing and bioimaging of highly reactive oxygen species.

We prepared a nanoprobe through self-assembly of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and using FITC-modified hyaluronic acid (HA) for ratiometric sensing of highly reactive oxygen species (hROS). Taking advantage of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties of the self-assembled AuNCs, hROS-responsive cleavage of HA, and the ratiometric signal change of dual-emission, the nanoprobe exhibited excellent performance in imaging hROS in living cells.