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Fluorescence loss of commercial aqueous quantum dots during preparation for bioimaging

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Abstract

Quantum dots (QDs) are increasingly employed in biologic imaging applications; however, anecdotal reports suggest difficulties in QD bioconjugation. Further, the stability of commercial QDs during bioconjugation has not been systematically evaluated. Thus, we examined fluorescence losses resulting from aggregation and declining photoluminescence quantum yield (QY) for commercial CdSe/ZnS QD products from four different vendors. QDs were most stable in the aqueous media in which they were supplied. The largest QY declines were observed during centrifugal filtration, whereas the largest declines in colloidal stability occurred in 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer. These results enable optimization of bioconjugation protocols.

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation DBI-1555470.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Ave., Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Kil Ho Lee, Thomas Porter & Jessica O. Winter

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 W. Woodruff Ave., Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Jessica O. Winter

Authors
  1. Kil Ho Lee
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  2. Thomas Porter
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  3. Jessica O. Winter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jessica O. Winter.

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These authors have contributed equally to this work.

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Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at https ://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.41

Conflict of interest statement

In accordance with ethical obligation as a researcher, JOW reports that she has financial and business interests in a company (i.e., Core Quantum Technologies) that may be affected by the research reported in the enclosed paper. JOW has disclosed those interests fully to the publishers, and has in place an approved plan for managing any potential conflicts arising from that involvement. This work was not funded by Core Quantum Technologies and the opinions represented are those of the authors.

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Lee, K.H., Porter, T. & Winter, J.O. Fluorescence loss of commercial aqueous quantum dots during preparation for bioimaging. MRS Communications 9, 702–709 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.41

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