| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 599030 | Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces | 2016 | 6 Pages |
•Highly luminescent Ag2Te quantum dots (QDs) were prepared using glycerol as viscous solvent.•Ag2Te QDs exhibited tunable near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) emission and high PL quantum yields.•The QDs were favorably used for targeted PL imaging of tumor cells.
In this work, highly luminescent and emission tunable Ag2Te quantum dots (QDs) were facilely prepared by using water-dispersed glycerol as viscous solvent and CH3COOAg/Na2TeO3 as Ag/Te precursors. Viscous glycerol was utilized to slow the nucleation and growth of QDs at 200 °C, and enabled the isolation of QDs with different emission wavelengths. Experimental results revealed that the as-prepared Ag2Te QDs exhibited tunable near-infrared emission from 930 to 1084 nm, high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs, more than 20%), good photostability and low cytotoxicity. After surface coating of a thin silica shell (∼1.4 nm), the resulting NH2 terminated Ag2Te@SiO2-NH2 displayed enhanced PL QYs, higher photostability and biocompatibility when compared with the original Ag2Te QDs. Through a facile carboxy-amine coupling, folic acid (FA) was grafted with Ag2Te@SiO2-NH2 to form Ag2Te@SiO2-FA nanocomposites, which were used for targeted PL imaging of folate receptor over-expressed tumor cells.
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