Optical detection of gadolinium(iii) ions via quantum dot aggregation.

ABSTRACT: A rapid, sensitive and selective optical readout of the presence of gadolinium(iii) ions would have a wide range of applications for clinical and environmental monitoring. We demonstrate that water-soluble CdTe quantum dots (QDs) are induced to aggregate by Gd3+ ions in aqueous solution. By using a combination of photoluminescence spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to monitor quantum dot aggregation kinetics, we correlate the efficiency of the self-quenching process with the degree of aggregation across a broad range of conditions, including different sizes of QDs. We attribute the aggregation to metal binding to the QD's surface ligands and the quenching to intra-aggregate energy transfer between QDs. When the strategy was applied to add

SUBMITTER: Quinn SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5735353 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature