title: Glycerol-regulated facile synthesis and targeted cell imaging of highly luminescent Ag2Te quantum dots with tunable near-infrared emission.
abstract: 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 1084nm, high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs, more than 20%), good photostability and low cytotoxicity. After surface coating of a thin silica shell (∼1.4nm), 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong Sino-Japanese Center for Collaborative Research of Carbon Nanomaterials, Qingdao University, Shandong 266071, PR China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong Sino-Japanese Center for Collaborative Research of Carbon Nanomaterials, Qingdao University, Shandong 266071, PR China. Electronic address: guirijun@qdu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Rijun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materia Medica, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250062, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materia Medica, Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan 250062, PR China.
authors.forename: Yanfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000072283:A549 Cells; D000085:Acetates / Q000737:chemistry*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D058975:Folate Receptor 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D049449:Luminescence; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods; D011485:Protein Binding; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D018030:Silver Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods; D013691:Tellurium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000085:Acetates; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D058975:Folate Receptor 1; D018030:Silver Compounds; C032039:sodium tellurate(IV); C103100:silver acetate; D005492:Folic Acid; D013691:Tellurium; D005990:Glycerol
keywords: Cell imaging; Glycerol; Near-infrared emission; Quantum dots; Silver telluride