Abstract
AbstractThioglycolic acid (TGA) is a popular coating material for the preparation of aqueous quantum dots (QDs), yet dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) has not been studied much. Here we present a detailed study on the aqueous synthesis of CdTe/CdS quantum dots with a DHLA coating. The outer CdS shell and DHLA stabilizer provide efficient confinement of electron and hole wave functions inside the nanocrystal as well as high photochemical stability. At the optimum ratios and reaction conditions, the results indicate that the DHLA‐capped CdTe/CdS QDs exhibit high fluorescence quantum yields (QYs) of about 48 % over a spectral range of 551–571 nm, and the best QY is 87 %. These DHLA‐capped core–shell QDs are highly biocompatible and monodisperse. In particular, they have exhibited excellent colloidal and photostability over one year of study. The synthesis of QDs by using DHLA as stabilizer is simple and environmentally friendly, and it can easily be extended to the large‐scale, aqueous‐phase production of QDs. At a QD dose of 120 μg/mL, TGA‐stabilized CdTe QDs induce 9.5 % hemolysis, whereas DHLA‐stabilized CdTe/CdS QDs induce only 3 % hemolysis. Hemolytic results indicate that DHLA‐stabilized QDs are more biocompatible than TGA‐capped CdTe QDs, which is especially important for QDs as biomarkers in biological detection and diagnosis.
Published Version
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