Cadmium-free quantum dots as time-gated bioimaging probes in highly-autofluorescent human breast cancer cells

by Mandal, Gopa; Darragh, Molly; Wang, Y. Andrew; Heyes, Colin D.

We report cadmium-free, biocompatible (Zn)CuInS2 quantum dots with long fluorescence lifetimes as superior bioimaging probes using time-gated detection to suppress cell autofluorescence and improve the signal : background ratio by an order of magnitude. These results will be important for developing non-toxic fluorescence imaging probes for ultrasensitive biomedical diagnostics.

Journal
Chemical Communications
Volume
49
Issue
6
Year
2013
Start Page
624-626
URL
https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c2cc37529j
ISBN/ISSN
1364-548X; 1359-7345
DOI
10.1039/c2cc37529j