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Water‐soluble mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA)‐coated CdTe quantum dots: one‐step microwave synthesis, characterization and cancer cell imaging
Author(s) -
Dong Chaoqing,
Ren Jicun
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
luminescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.428
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1522-7243
pISSN - 1522-7235
DOI - 10.1002/bio.1330
Subject(s) - quantum dot , characterization (materials science) , cadmium telluride photovoltaics , microwave , materials science , nanotechnology , chemistry , chemical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
In this study, a one‐step approach for aqueous synthesis of highly luminescent semiconductors, CdTe quantum dots (QDs), using long‐chain thiols‐mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) as surface ligand, was developed in a microwave irradiation system. The synthetic conditions were systematically investigated. The as‐prepared MUA‐coated QDs were characterized by various spectroscopy techniques, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD). The experimental results document that MUA‐coated CdTe QDs have small diameter, good stability, high luminescence and long lifetime. Particularly, it was confirmed, using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) that, compared with other ligand, MUA formed a thicker ligand layer on the QD surfaces, which will help their stability and conjugation with biomolecules. Furthermore, MUA‐coated QDs were successfully used for HeLa cell imaging. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.