Giant Pyramidal Near‐Infrared InP/ZnS Quantum Dots with Size Over 15 nm for Cell Imaging

Abstract

In recent years, near‐infrared quantum dots (NIR QDs) have emerged as a promising candidate for biological imaging owing to their strong fluorescence penetrating into biological tissues and high imaging signal‐to‐noise ratio. Among various materials, InP QDs are environmentally friendly and have a relatively narrow bandgap of 1.35 eV, which provides a possibility for their emission wavelength to extend to the near‐infrared region. However, the strong reactivity of the precursor of phosphorus makes it challenging to synthesize NIR InP QDs, as it leads to rapid nucleation of the InP core. Herein, a method of epitaxial growth is reported to synthesize NIR InP QDs. Through high‐temperature nucleation and low‐temperature epitaxial growth, NIR InP QDs larger than 15 nm in size and with an emission wavelength of 807 nm are successfully synthesized. Furthermore, by removing InPOx defects on the surface of the core through HF etching, the quantum yield (QY) is increased from 6% to 12%. Ligand exchange successfully converted oil‐soluble ligands into water‐soluble ones, leading to excellent performance in cell imaging. The study provides a promising approach to the synthesis of desirable NIR InP QDs for use in biomedical imaging applications.