Abstract
Water-soluble silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been synthesized with photoluminescence quantum yield more than 32% via a hydrothermal treatment of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as silicon sources and maleic acid (MA) as surface-stabilizing ligands. Prepared SiNPs showed the presence of carboxylic acid groups through the incorporation of MA. The presence of 48.8 and 51.2% of Si–Si and Si–O binding was observed in the resulting carboxylic acid-functionalized SiNPs (COOH-SiNPs). As revealed by the fluorescence lifetime images, COOH-SiNPs possesses several fluorophores mainly composed of above Si–Si binding inside of single particle, which explains the excitation-dependent fluorescence emission behavior of COOH-SiNPs. Also, the presence of oxides mainly composed of Si–O binding and MA on the surface of COOH-SiNPs provides long-term stability for both fluorescence and dispersion. The potential use of COOH-SiNPs as fluorescence bioimaging agents for cellular media has been demonstrated. COOH-SiNPs showed excellent cell viability more than 91% for both MDAMB and MDCK cells even in 1,000 ppm concentration, and multicolor fluorescence imaging (blue, green, and red) of MDAMB cells was successfully accomplished with different excitation wavelengths.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2015R1D1A3A01020192) and by Radiation Technology R&D program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (No. NRF-2017M2A2A6A01019289), and International Joint Technology Development Project (No. N0002123) through the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MI, Korea) and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).
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Jeong, W., Jo, S., Park, J. et al. Hydrothermal synthesis of fluorescent silicon nanoparticles using maleic acid as surface-stabilizing ligands. J Mater Sci 53, 2443–2452 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1712-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1712-3