Due to toxicity and environmental concerns, a current major focus in nanomaterials research is on developing new, cadmium-free quantum dots (CFQDs) for biomedical and optoelectronic applications. I-III-VI ternary nanoparticles, such as CuInS2-based CFQDs are emerging as one such candidate. Adding a shell to these cores results in a significant increase in their brightness and fluorescence lifetime. This can be taken advantage of in fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and time-gated imaging (TGI) applications. However, to allow such applications to be quantitative rather than qualitative, a more complete understanding of the optical properties of I-III-VI CFQDs at both the ensemble and single particle level is needed. Here we synthesize various copper-indium-chalcogenide CFQDs, with different core-shell configurations and study their optical properties, particularly fluorescence lifetime, quantum yield, blinking and dark fraction, since they each play roles in quantifying nanoparticle-based imaging and tracking.

Optical properties and advanced bioimaging applications of copper-indium-chalcogenide quantum dots at the ensemble and single particle level

246th National Meeting (2013)

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