Self-amplifying sensory materials: Energy migration in polymer semiconductors.

A review. Signal amplification for ultra-sensitive detection was achieved by energy migration in conjugated semiconducting polymeric assemblies. Crit. to optimizing this effect is the synthesis of non-aggregate polymers, the multi-dimensional directional transport of excited states (excitons), and extending the intrinsic excited state lifetime of conjugated polymers. We developed new water-sol. non-ionic conjugated polymers for use in biosensory applications, which can be used to provide highly sensitive/specific ultra-trace detection that is immune to specificity problems that plage ionic conjugated polymers. [on SciFinder(R)]