The optical microscopy of single molecules has recently been beneficial for many applications, in particular in biology. It allows a sub-wavelength localization of an isolated nano-object and a subtle probing of its spatio temporal nano-environment on cells [1].

For many bio-applications, near infrared nanoprobes and/or more photostable nanoprobes than conventional fluorescent molecules or quantum dots are desirable. In this context, the use of single walled carbon nanotube tubes (SWCNTs) is expected to be favorable. A prerequisite is however to understand and tune their physical properties/morphologies for applications in bio-environments as well as to optimize optical schemes to detect them in complex environments depending on nanotube lengths and foreseen applications [2]. Here we show that by tracking individual SWCNT for minutes, structural information of the living tissues are revealed at the nanoscale. These results, which could not be obtained by other approaches, are obtained by analysis of the structure-dependent diffusion properties of the anisotropic SWCNTs combined to super-resolution imaging strategies [3].

 

References

[1] Godin et al , Biophys. J, (2014).

[2] Gao, et al, Sci. Rep. (2015); Gao, et al, Biomater. Sci. (2016);

[3] Godin et al submitted