Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.
Environ Res. 2021 Mar;194:110593. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110593. Epub 2020 Dec 19.
Quantum dots are widely applicated into bioindustry and research owing to its superior properties such as broad excitation spectra, narrow bandwidth emission spectra and high resistance to photo-bleaching. However, the toxicity of quantum dots should not be underestimated and aroused widespread concern. The surface properties and size of quantum dots are critical relevant properties on toxicity. Then, the core/shell structure becomes one common way to affect the activity of quantum dots such as enhance biocompatibility and stability. Except those toxicity it induced, the problem it brought into the environment such as the degradation of quantum dot similarly becomes a hot issue. This review initially took a brief scan of current research on the cytotoxicity of QDs and the mechanism behind that over the past five years. Mainly discussion concentrated on the diversity of structure on quantum dots whether played a key role on the cytotoxicty of quantum dots. It also discussed the role of different shells with metal or nonmetal cores and the influence on the environment.
量子点由于其宽激发光谱、窄带宽发射光谱和高抗光漂白性等优异性能，被广泛应用于生物工业和研究领域。然而，量子点的毒性不可低估，引起了广泛关注。量子点的表面性质和尺寸是影响其毒性的关键相关性质。然后，核/壳结构成为影响量子点活性的常见方法，如增强生物相容性和稳定性。除了它所引起的毒性，它给环境带来的问题，如量子点的降解，同样成为一个热点问题。本文简要回顾了过去五年中关于 QDs 细胞毒性及其机制的研究现状。主要讨论集中在量子点结构的多样性是否对量子点的细胞毒性起关键作用。还讨论了不同的金属或非金属核壳对环境的影响。
