nl050017l_si_001.pdf (87.32 kB)
Surfactant-Assisted Synthesis of Water-Soluble and Biocompatible Semiconductor Quantum Dot Micelles
journal contribution
posted on 2005-04-13, 00:00 authored by Hongyou Fan, Erik W. Leve, Chessa Scullin, John Gabaldon, David Tallant, Scott Bunge, Tim Boyle, Michael C. Wilson, C. Jeffrey BrinkerWe report a simple, rapid approach to synthesize water-soluble and biocompatible fluorescent quantum dot (QD) micelles by encapsulation
of monodisperse, hydrophobic QDs within surfactant/lipid micelles. Analyses of UV−vis and photo luminescence spectra, along with transmission
electron microscopy, indicate that the water-soluble semiconductor QD micelles are monodisperse and retain the optical properties of the
original hydrophobic QDs. The QD micelles were shown to be biocompatible and exhibited little or no aggregation when taken up by cultured
rat hippocampal neurons.