San José Leire, García Olga, Quijada-Garrido Isabel, López-González Mar
Group of Nanohybrids and Interactive Polymers, Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Polímeros (ICTP-CSIC), C/Juan de la Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Oct 1;12(19):3441. doi: 10.3390/nano12193441.
The remarkable photoluminescent properties, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and antibacterial properties of zinc oxide quantum dots (ZnO QDs) coupled with their low cost and nanoscale size guarantee bio-related and technological applications. However, the effect of the polymeric ligand during synthesis has hardly been investigated compared to other less environmentally friendly QDs. Thus, the objective of this work was to focus on the synthesis of fluorescent hybrid ZnO QDs by the sol-gel method using different polymers with hydroxyl groups as templates and ligands to obtain stable particles in different media. For this purpose, well-defined hydroxylated statistical polymers and block copolymers were synthesized using reversible-addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization to establish the influence of molecular weight, hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance, and polymer architecture on the colloidal and photophysical properties of the synthesized hybrid ZnO QDs. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), TEM, and X-ray diffraction measurements indicated the formation of stable nanoparticles of a few nanometers. A remarkable enhancement in terms of fluorescence was observed when ZnO QDs were synthesized in the presence of the hydroxylated homopolymers and even more so with block copolymers architecture. Organosilanes combined with the hydroxylated polymers were used to improve the colloidal stability of ZnO QDs in aqueous media. These samples exhibited uniform and stable enhanced photoluminescence for nearly five months of being investigated. Among other applications, the hybrid ZnO QDs synthesized in this work exhibit high selectivity to detect Cr, Fe, or Cu in water.
氧化锌量子点（ZnO QDs）具有卓越的光致发光特性、生物相容性、生物降解性和抗菌性能，再加上其低成本和纳米级尺寸，保证了其在生物相关和技术领域的应用。然而，与其他对环境不太友好的量子点相比，合成过程中聚合物配体的影响几乎未被研究。因此，这项工作的目标是聚焦于通过溶胶 - 凝胶法合成荧光杂化ZnO QDs，使用不同的含羟基聚合物作为模板和配体，以在不同介质中获得稳定的颗粒。为此，使用可逆加成 - 断裂链转移（RAFT）聚合反应合成了定义明确的羟基化统计聚合物和嵌段共聚物，以确定分子量、疏水/亲水平衡和聚合物结构对合成的杂化ZnO QDs的胶体和光物理性质的影响。动态光散射（DLS）、透射电子显微镜（TEM）和X射线衍射测量表明形成了几纳米的稳定纳米颗粒。当在羟基化均聚物存在下合成ZnO QDs时，观察到荧光有显著增强，在嵌段共聚物结构存在下更是如此。有机硅烷与羟基化聚合物结合使用，以提高ZnO QDs在水性介质中的胶体稳定性。在近五个月的研究期间，这些样品表现出均匀且稳定的增强光致发光。在其他应用中，这项工作中合成的杂化ZnO QDs对检测水中的铬、铁或铜具有高选择性。
