Optical encoding of microbeads based on silica particle encapsulated quantum dots and its applications

A novel method concerning the coding technology of polystyrene beads with Si encapsulated quantum dot (QD) particles (Si@QDs particles) is studied in this paper. In the reverse microemulsion system containing tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), water-soluble QDs (emission peak at 600 nm) were enveloped within the silica shell, forming Si@QDs particles. The Si@QDs particles were characterized by TEM, showing good uniform size, with an average diameter of about 167.0 nm. In comparison with the pure water-soluble QDs, the encapsulation of water-soluble QDs in the silica shell led to an enhancement in anti-photobleaching by providing inert barriers for the QDs. Images presented by SEM and confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated that the Si@QDs particles were equably coated on the surface of carboxyl functionalized polystyrene (PS) beads. Then, with the assistance of ethyl-3-(dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EDC/NHS), human IgG could be successfully crosslinked to Si@QDs particle coated PS-COOH beads. Furthermore, the Si@QDs coated PS-COOH beads with human IgG were examined in immunoassay experiments, and the results indicated that these beads could be applied in the specific recognition of goat-anti-human IgG in solution. This investigation is expected to provide a new route to bead coding in the field of suspension microarrays, based on the use of QDs.