“…[41,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] The grafting of the ligand onto the NPs surface is readily achieved by post-functionalization. [54,[58][59][60][61] With the objective of sensing Cu 2+ , we choose to graft a very efficient ligand of transition metal ions with a marked selectivity for cupric ions: 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, so called cyclam (Scheme 1). [62,63] Fluorescent dyes can be incorporated in polymer particles by a variety of methods like copolymerization with reactive fluorophores, [33,35,36] entrapment of classical dyes introduced in the monomer(s) before polymerization [15,28,[30][31][32]37,38] or by soaking pre-existing particles.…”