
Article Title
Biosynthesis of biocompatible cadmium telluride quantum dots using yeast cells
Keywords
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots, biosynthesis, biocompatible, in situ bio-imaging
Abstract
We demonstrate a simple and efficient biosynthesis method to prepare easily harvested biocompatible cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) with tunable fluorescence emission using yeast cells. Ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirm that the CdTe QDs are formed via an extracellular growth and subsequent endocytosis pathway and have size-tunable optical properties with fluorescence emission from 490 to 560 nm and a cubic zinc blende structure with good crystallinity. In particular, the CdTe QDs with uniform size (2–3.6 nm) are protein-capped, which makes them highly soluble in water, and in situ bio-imaging in yeast cells indicates that the biosynthesized QDs have good biocompatibility. This work provides an economic and environmentally friendly approach to synthesize highly fluorescent biocompatible CdTe QDs for bio-imaging and bio-labeling applications.
Graphical Abstract
Publisher
Tsinghua University Press
Recommended Citation
Haifeng Bao,Na Hao,Yunxia Yang,Dongyuan Zhao, Biosynthesis of biocompatible cadmium telluride quantum dots using yeast cells. NanoRes.2010, 3: 481–489