Monoclinic yttrium oxide quantum dots surface modified by biotin for bioimaging applications

Semiconductor nanoparticles or quantum dots are one of the central topics of interest in material science research due to its size dependent physical and chemical characteristics and applications in different areas from display to biomedical fields. This work reports the first-time synthesis of biotin functionalized monoclinic yttrium oxide quantum dots at low temperature and its application in live cell imaging. The presence of biotin was confirmed through FTIR measurements. HRTEM analysis confirmed the formation of small spherical quantum dots with an average size of 3.8 nm. Zeta potential measurements gave a negative surface charge of-26.9 mV confirming colloidal stability. The quantum dots show sharp absorption in the short UV region and PL experiments delivered defect related intense blue fluorescence emission. The material is nontoxic to both normal (L929) and cancer (MCF 7) cells and the live cell imaging experiments performed on MCF 7 cells show specific binding to the cells and presented bright fluorescence emission from the cells thus confirming the applicability of the material in both display industry and cancer cell imaging.