Fig. 1. (A) Schematic illustration of the preparation of carboxyl-functionalized Pdots through nanoprecipitation and subsequent bioconjugation for in vitro specific cellular imaging and in vivo tumor targeting. (B) Absorption spectra of PF-TFQ-BODIPY Pdots (solid green line), TPE-TFQ-BODIPY Pdots (solid blue line), and Pttc-TFQ-BODIPY (solid red line) in water. Their corresponding emission spectra are shown with dashed lines. The insets in the bottom-left and upper-right corners show the photographs of the Pdot solutions (from left to right: PF-TFQ-BODIPY, TPE-TFQ-BODIPY, and Pttc-TFQ-BODIPY Pdots in sequence) under daylight and under UV light illumination, respectively. (C) Hydrodynamic diameters of Pttc-TFQ-BODIPY Pdots measured by dynamic light scattering. The inset shows the transmission electron microscopy image of Pttc-TFQ-BODIPY Pdots. Scale bar is 100 nm.