Premium
Highly Luminescent Heterostructured Copper‐Doped Zinc Sulfide Nanocrystals for Application in Cancer Cell Labeling
Author(s) -
Ang Huixiang,
Bosman Michel,
Thamankar Ramesh,
Zulkifli Muhammad Faizal B.,
Yen Swee Kuan,
Hariharan Anushya,
Sudhaharan Thankiah,
Selvan Subramanian Tamil
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201600415
Subject(s) - zinc , photoluminescence , zinc sulfide , nanocrystal , hela , dopant , luminescence , triethoxysilane , materials science , quantum yield , nanoparticle , copper , photochemistry , chemistry , doping , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , fluorescence , cell , optoelectronics , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
The structural characteristics of the seed‐mediated synthesis of heterostructured CuS–ZnS nanocrystals (NCs) and Cu‐doped ZnS (ZnS:Cu) NCs synthesized by two different protocols are compared and analyzed. At high Cu dopant concentrations, segregated subclusters of ZnS and CuS are observed. The photoluminescence quantum yield of ZnS:Cu NCs is about 50–80 %; a value much higher than that of ZnS NCs (6 %). Finally, these NCs are coated with a thin silica shell by using (3‐mercaptopropyl)triethoxysilane in a reverse microemulsion to make them water soluble. Cytotoxicity experiments show that these silica‐coated NCs have greatly reduced toxicity on both cancerous HeLa and noncancerous Chinese hamster ovary cells. The labeling of cancerous HeLa cells is also demonstrated.