Fluorescent core-shell star polymers based bioassays for ultrasensitive DNA detection by surface plasmon fluorescence spectroscopy.

Multilayers containing a perylene diimide labelled star polymers (FSP) donor adjacent to phosphorus dendrimer layer on a silver substrate were constructed by layer by layer (LBL) approach. Using Surface Plasmon Enhanced Fluorescence Spectroscopy (SPFS) technique, a time-resolved ultrasensitive and selective detection of DNA targets relying on enhanced optical fields associated with energy transfer (ET) were achieved under the excitation at 543 nm. The detection limit is about 8 orders of magnitude better than the achieved one under the excitation at 632 nm, which is ascribed to no energy transfer from the donor to the acceptor under the excitation at 632 nm, resulting in much weak detection signal in turn.