Chapter 11 - Quantum dots: Synthesis techniques and its importance in biomedical field

Abstract

Quantum dots (QDs) have potential in future technology such as medical-based industries, automobile industries, and so on. Due to their size-dependent fluorescent nature, QDs have been used as powerful agents for biomedical imaging, drug delivery to living organisms, and biosensing applications. In recent years, QDs have found applications in biological imaging, due to their inherent brightness and photo stability. This chapter discusses various synthesis methods for QDs. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) play an important role in biomedical applications. Among the diverse uses of CQDs, biomedical fluorescent imaging is one of the most interesting for researchers. Herein, we discussed synthesis methods for CQDs and the mechanism of their related application in fields such as bio imaging, antimicrobial activity, and drug delivery for cancer treatment. In general, QDs have high toxicity to living organisms. Even though the toxicity of QDs is one of the challenges for researchers, the focus of QDs in biological application has been changing to multiplexed and multimodal imaging in vivo, in particular, in the field of noninvasive imaging of cancers. To raise this kind issue of high-quality QDs and develop nontoxic QDs to offer all the advantages of QDs to biomedical imaging and therapy, many researchers have invested invaluable efforts.