Table 4.

Comparison of different fluorescent nanoparticles and organic dyes.^a

	organic dyes	quantum dots	Conjugated polymer NPs	dye-loaded polymer NPs
Diameterb	~1 nm	6-60 nm	5-50 nm	15-100 nm
Monodispersity	+	+	+/-	+/-
Brightness (ε×QY)	103-105	105-106	105-108	105-108
Photostabilityc	105-106	107-108	106-109	4.4×107 d
Absorption range	UV-vis-NIR	UV-vis-NIR	UV-vis	UV-vis-NIR
Emission range	UV-vis-NIR	vis-NIR	UV-vis-NIR	UV-vis-NIR
Blinking	yes/no	Yes	yes/no	yes/no
Surface chemistry and colloidal stability	+	+	+/-	+/-
Biodegradability	+	-	-	+

^a“+”– an advantage; “+/-“ – to be improved; “-“– a weak point

^bhydrodynamic diameter

^cnumber of photons before photobleaching

^ddata from one report.[87]