Preparation of Photoluminescence Tunable Cu-doped AgInS2and AgInS2/ZnS Nanocrystals and Their Application as Cellular Imaging Probes.
In this work, high-quality Cu doped AIS and AIS/ZnS NCs have been first synthesized via a surface doping approach. By varying Cu concentrations in doping, Cu doped AIS NCs exhibit a photoluminescence red-shift from around 600 nm to 660 nm with a decrease of quantum yield from around 30% to 20%. After ZnS coating or zinc etching on the Cu doped AIS NCs, Cu doped AIS/ZnS NCs present photoluminescence peaks from around 570 nm to 610 nm and high quantum yields in the range of 50 ~ 60%. Moreover, it is found that Cu doping can prolong the photoluminescence lifetime of NCs, and the average photoluminescence lifetime of Cu doped AIS and AIS/ZnS NCs is in the range of 300 ~ 500 ns. The resultant Cu doped AIS/ZnS NCs were further encapsulated with amphiphilic polymers and used as biocompatible photoluminescent probes in cellular imaging. The cellular imaging study shows that peptide-conjugated probes can specifically target U-87 brain tumor cells and thus they can be applied to the detection of endogenous targets expressed on brain tumor cells.
Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA; Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA.
Siqi
S
Chen
Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA; Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA.
Violeta
V
Demillo
School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA.
Minggen
M
Lu
Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA; Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Nevada Reno, NV, USA.
Xiaoshan
X
Zhu