Novel Applications of Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Abstract

We have investigated ways of modifying a common water soluble CdTe NCs to become non-photobleaching. Such NCs are capable of responding reversibly to an inter-switching of the oxygen and argon environments over multiple hours of photoexcitation. They are found to quench upon exposure to oxygen, but when the system is purged with argon, their photoluminescence (PL) revives to the original intensity. Such discovery could potentially be used as oxygen nanosensors. These PL robust CdTe NCs immobilized on glass substrates also exhibit significant changes in their PL when certain organic/bio molecules are placed in their vicinity (nanoscale). This novel technique also known as NC-organic molecule close proximity imaging (NC-cp imaging) has found to provide contrast ratio greater by a factor of 2-3 compared to conventional fluorescence imaging technique. PL of NCs is recoverable upon removal of these organic molecules, therefore validating these NCs as potential all-optical organic molecular nanosensors and, upon optimization, ultimately serving as point detectors for purposes of super-resolution microscopy (with proper instrumentation). No solvents are required for this sensing mechanism since all solutions were dried under argon flow. Furthermore, core graded shell CdSe/CdSeₓS(1-x)/CdS giant nanocrystal (g-NCs) were found to have very robust PL temperature response. At a size of 10.2 nm in diameter, these g-NCs undergo PL drop of only 30% at 355K (normalized to PL intensity at 85K). In comparison, the core step shells CdSe/CdS g-NCs at the same diameter exhibit 80% PL drop at 355K. Spectral shifting and broadening were acquired and found to be 5-10 times and 2-4 times smaller respectively than the standard CdSe core and CdSe/CdS core shell NCs. It is also discovered that these core graded shell g-NCs are largely nonblinking and have insignificant photoluminescence decay even after exciting the samples at very high irradiance (44 kW/cm²) for over an hour. These types of g-NCs have great potential to be used as the active medium for temperature insensitive laser devices in the visible range or temperature insensitive bioprobes for bioimaging applications.