Department of Chemical Sciences (formerly Applied Chemistry), University of Johannesburg, P.O. box 17011, Doornfontein, 2028 Johannesburg, South Africa; Center for Nanomaterials Science Research, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, South Africa.
Department of Chemical Sciences (formerly Applied Chemistry), University of Johannesburg, P.O. box 17011, Doornfontein, 2028 Johannesburg, South Africa; Center for Nanomaterials Science Research, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, South Africa.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2020 Jan;106:110181. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.110181. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
I-III-VI chalcopyrite ternary quantum dots have emerged as a good alternative over the conventional II-VI and IV-VI chalcogenide binary QDs that usually consist of heavy metals such as Cd and Pb which has limited their bioapplications. Among the chalcopyrite QDs, AgInSe QDs has been the least developed due to the imbalanced cation reactivity, unwanted impurities, broad size distribution and resultant large particle sizes. In addition, the cell viability of these QDs still needs to be investigated on different cell lines both normal and cancerous ones. Herein, large-scale synthesis of water-soluble thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped and gelatin-stabilized AgInSe (AISe) core and AgInSe/ZnSe (AISe/ZnSe) core/shell QDs in the absence of an inert atmosphere and their cell viability against different cell lines are reported. The optical and structural characteristics of the as-synthesized QDs were investigated by UV-visible (vis) absorption, photoluminescence (PL) and Fourier-transmission infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies, dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) techniques. Growth of ZnSe shell on the core AISe resulted in the blue shifting of the emission maximum position with the increased PL intensity. The QDs are small and spherical in shape with an average particle diameter of 2.8 nm and 3.2 nm for AISe and AISe/ZnSe QDs respectively. The in vitro cell viability assay revealed that the as-synthesized AISe/ZnSe QDs are not toxic towards cancerous (HeLa -cervical cancer and A549-lung cancer) and normal (BHK21 -Kidney) cell lines.
I-III-VI 黄铜矿三元量子点已成为优于传统 II-VI 和 IV-VI 族硫属二元量子点的良好替代品，后者通常由重金属（如 Cd 和 Pb）组成，这限制了它们的生物应用。在黄铜矿量子点中，AgInSe 量子点的发展最少，这是由于阳离子反应性不平衡、不必要的杂质、宽的尺寸分布和由此产生的大颗粒尺寸。此外，这些量子点的细胞活力仍需要在不同的细胞系（正常和癌细胞）上进行研究。在此，在没有惰性气氛的情况下，大规模合成了水溶性巯基乙酸（TGA）封端和明胶稳定的 AgInSe（AISe）核和 AgInSe/ZnSe（AISe/ZnSe）核/壳量子点，并报告了它们对不同细胞系的细胞活力。通过紫外-可见（可见）吸收、光致发光（PL）和傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱、动态光散射（DLS）、X 射线衍射（XRD）和高分辨率透射电子显微镜（HRTEM）技术研究了所合成量子点的光学和结构特性。在核 AISe 上生长 ZnSe 壳导致发射最大值位置蓝移，同时 PL 强度增加。量子点呈球形，尺寸小，平均粒径分别为 2.8nm 和 3.2nm。体外细胞活力测定表明，所合成的 AISe/ZnSe 量子点对癌细胞（HeLa-宫颈癌和 A549-肺癌）和正常细胞（BHK21-肾）均无毒性。
