Water-soluble CdSe/ZnS quantum dots passivated by poly(glycino amino acid) phosphazenes

Poly(organophosphazenes) have potential applications in making water-soluble and biocompatible quantum dots (QDs) due to their wide variety of properties. The CdSe QDs of green emission and the core-shell CdSe/ZnS QDs of red emission were prepared. Subsequently the trioctylphosphine oxide-stabilized CdSe/ZnS QDs were transferred from chloroform into water through a ligand exchange process with poly(glycino amino acid)phosphazenes, which can be obtained from the saponification of poly (glycino amino ester)phosphazenes at room temperature. The resulting QDs-polymer nanocomposite particles can form colloidally stable suspensions in water and exhibit good photostability.