Evidence of oriented attachment in the growth of functionalized ZnTe nanoparticles for potential applications in bio-imaging

Abstract

This study reports a solution based, low temperature route towards the synthesis of water soluble cysteine capped zinc telluride (ZnTe) nanoparticles under the influence of variations in pH and reaction time. The optical properties of the ZnTe nanoparticles display broad emission peaks ranging between 365-415 nm, which make them useful for imaging and biological labelling applications. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM studies indicated that the particles are uniform in size and shape, however at the 2 hour reaction time interval the nanoparticle growth enters a transition phase where the morphology changes from nanospheres to nanorods. The formation of the ZnTe nanoparticles relative to reaction temperature, pH and time is typical of the oriented attachment growth mechanism. X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the crystalline cubic phase. The surface charge of the functionalised ZnTe was also determined. The fluorescence properties and optical stability of the ZnTe nanoparticles in DNA plasmid pGEMT Easy were studied using fluorescence (365-395 nm filter) and phase-contrast (UV 2A 330-380 nm filter) microscopy techniques.

Synthesis of biocompatible Au–ZnTe core–shell nanoparticles

“…Previous reports on ZnTe nanoparticles show emission in the 400-600 nm range depending on its size, shape and surface modications. [38][39][40][41][42][44][45][46] In the case of materials where the gold core is surrounded by a semiconductor shell the emission from the shell material is quenched due to electron transfer to the metal core. 47 It is therefore conceivable that the emission in Fig.…”

“…We have recently shown that ZnTe nanoparticles displayed uorescence properties that are useful in bioapplications. 42 The presence of cysteine has the potential to support conjugation of biomolecules and chemotherapeutic drugs which may enable this system to be applied in targeted drug delivery and bio-imaging applications within the domain of oncology therapeutics and diagnostics.…”

Metal Telluride Nanomaterials: Facile Synthesis, Properties and Applications for Third Generation Devices.

“…The results from Near infra‐red (NIR) induced photothermal conversion, NIR induced photodynamic property, cytocompatibility of Cu 2 Te nanocubes, doxorubicin (DOX) loading and release, In vitro cellular imaging and chemo‐toxicity of NCs‐DOX conjugate, NIR induced cellular photothermal ablation, NIR induced cellular photodynamic therapy, synergistic combinatorial therapy demonstrate that combinational therapy can be a wonderful technique for development of analytical therapeutic approaches for hypermethylated breast cancers. Cysteine stabilized ZnTe nanoparticles were synthesized by Dunpal et al . at different pH values.…”

Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of gum arabic surface modified cadmium telluride quantum dots

“…The synthesis of the CdTe was carried out using methods described previously [17,[38][39][40] but with some slight modifications [41][42][43]. All reactions were carried out under an inert atmosphere using nitrogen gas.…”