Facile synthesis of noncytotoxic PEGylated dendrimer encapsulated silver sulfide quantum dots for NIR-II biological imaging. Issue 9 (26th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Awasthi, Pragati; An, Xinyi; Xiang, Jiajia; Kalva, Nagendra; Shen, Youqing; Li, Chunyan
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale. Volume 12:Issue 9(2020)
• Page Start: 5678
• Page End: 5684
• Publication Date: 2020-02-26
• Subjects: Nanoscience -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; 620.505
• DOI: 10.1039/c9nr10918h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-3364

Abstract

Abstract : The water-soluble PEG-PATU Ag2 S QDs have been successfully prepared by one-pot method, which display the favorable NIR-II fluorescence property for in vivo bioimaging. Abstract : Near-infrared-II (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) bioimaging features high penetration depth and high spatio-temporal resolution compared to traditional fluorescence imaging, but the key is to develop stable and biocompatible NIR-II fluorophores suitable for in vivo applications. Silver sulfide quantum dots (Ag2 S QDs) have been demonstrated to be excellent for in vivo NIR-II imaging with unique optical properties and decent biocompatibility, but they often require complex post modifications for in vivo applications. Herein we demonstrate a facile one-pot strategy to synthesize PEGylated dendrimer-encapsulated Ag2 S QDs useful for in vivo NIR-II imaging. Silver ions were first loaded into the core of an acylthiourea-functionalized dendrimer (PEG-PATU) through coordination between silver ions and acylthiourea groups, followed by the addition of sodium sulfide to form Ag2 S QDs in situ . The resulting PEG-PATU Ag2 S QDs exhibit excellent NIR-II fluorescence signals, and thus could be used for high efficiency labelling and tracking of A549 cancer cell mobility in vivo and real time visualization of the vast circulatory network of a mouse.