Ultraviolet radiation synthesis of water dispersed CdTe/CdS/ZnS core-shell-shell quantum dots with high fluorescence strength and biocompatibility

This study explored a simple and fast method utilizing ultraviolet (UV) irradiation to synthesize CdTe/CdS/ZnS QDs in aqueous solution. Based on the reaction of photolysis and chemical deposition, the CdS and ZnS shell can be successively deposited around the thiol-capped CdTe cores through the interaction of Cd2+/Zn2+ and S2- produced by UV irradiation. The effect of the UV irradiation time, the ratios of thioglycolic acid (TGA)/Cd and TGA/Zn on the shell formation, shell stability, and the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the QDs, was systematically investigated. Keeping the ratio of TGA/Cd, increasing UV irradiation time from 30 to 120 s, the blue-shift of the fluorescence emission peak position of CdTe/CdS QDs was observed. As the irradiation time increased continuously from 120 to 300 s, the red-shift of the emission peak position was observed. In the total irradiation time, the PL intensity of all the samples was enhanced. By applying 300 s irradiation on the samples, the emission peak was blue-shifted at a fixed TGA/Cd ratio of 1:1 and red-shifted at the ratios of 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, and 13:1. The PL intensity reached its highest value at the ratio of 2:1. The effect of TGA/Zn ratio on ZnS shell formation showed a similar progress. Under an optimum synthesized reaction condition, the particle sizes of CdTe core, CdTe/CdS core-shell and CdTe/CdS/ZnS core-shell-shell QDs were 2.6 nm, 3.4 nm, and 4.6 nm respectively. This study confirmed that with the core-shell-shell structure, CdTe/CdS/ZnS QDs had high anti-oxidability, photostability, and low toxicity. Therefore they can be further used in cell imaging efficiently.