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Silica-coating of quantum nanorods by a sol–gel process and their photo-bleaching properties

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for optical, photonic and optoelectronic applications
  • Published:
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Abstract

This paper describes silica-coating of rod-structured nanoparticles composed of cadmium compounds, or quantum rods (QR), by means of a sol–gel method. QRs surface-modified with polyethyleneimine (PEI) (QR/PEI) had an average lateral size of 6.7 ± 0.9 nm and an average longitudinal size of 24.4 ± 2.5 nm. Silica-coated QR nanoparticles (QR/SiO2) were fabricated with a sol–gel process using water, sodium hydroxide, and tetraethylorthosilicate in ethanol in the presence of the QR/PEI nanoparticles. The QR/SiO2 nanoparticles were core-shell particles composed of the QRs as the core, the PEI as the matrix, and the silica as the shells. The colloid solution of QR/SiO2 nanoparticles showed more stable fluorescence to aging in a dark box in atmosphere at room temperature than that of QR/PEI nanoparticles.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by Merck Performance Materials Ltd. We express our thanks to Prof. M. Kakihana at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Japan for his help with TEM observation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomolecular Functional Engineering, College of Engineering, Ibaraki University, 4-12-1 Naka-narusawa-cho, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 316-8511, Japan

    Mai Yokokawa, Ting-ting Li, Masaya Kambayashi, Kouichi Nakashima & Yoshio Kobayashi

  2. Merck Performance Materials Ltd., 4084 Nakatsu, Aikawa-machi, Aiko-gun, Kanagawa, 243-0303, Japan

    Yuki Hirayama, Hiroshi Okura, Masaki Hasegawa & Stephan Dertinger

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  1. Mai Yokokawa
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  2. Ting-ting Li
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  3. Masaya Kambayashi
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  4. Kouichi Nakashima
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  5. Yuki Hirayama
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  9. Yoshio Kobayashi
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Correspondence to Yoshio Kobayashi.

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Highlights

  • Quantum rods (QR) modified with polymer had sizes of 6.7 (lateral) and 24.4 nm (longitudinal) for QR.

  • The modified QRs were silica-coated with a sol-gel process (QR/SiO2).

  • The QR/SiO2 nanoparticles were composed of QRs as core, polymer as matrix, and silica as the shells.

  • The QR/SiO2 nanoparticles provided high fluorescence stability compared with the no silica shells.

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Yokokawa, M., Li, Tt., Kambayashi, M. et al. Silica-coating of quantum nanorods by a sol–gel process and their photo-bleaching properties. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 86, 773–781 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4674-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4674-2

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