Visible-light photocatalyzed cross-linking of diacetylene ligands by quantum dots to improve their aqueous colloidal stability.

ABSTRACT: Ligand cross-linking is known to improve the colloidal stability of nanoparticles, particularly in aqueous solutions. However, most cross-linking is performed chemically, in which it is difficult to limit interparticle cross-linking, unless performed at low concentrations. Photochemical cross-linking is a promising approach but usually requires ultraviolet (UV) light to initiate. Using such high-energy photons can be harmful to systems in which the ligand-nanoparticle bond is fairly weak, as is the case for the commonly used semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). Here, we introduce a novel approach to cross-link thiolated ligands on QDs by utilizing the photocatalytic activity of QDs upon absorbing visible light. We show that using visible light leads to better ligand cross-linking by avoiding

SUBMITTER: Gotz MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4266359 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature