11-mercaptoundecanoic-acid and cadmium-telluride

It is commonly true that a diluted colloidal suspension is more stable over time than a concentrated one because dilution reduces collision rates of the particles and therefore delays the formation of aggregates. However, this generalization does not apply for some engineered ligand-coated nanoparticles (NPs). We observed the opposite relationship between stability and concentration of NPs. We tested 4 different types of NPs: CdSe-11-mercaptoundecanoic acid, CdTe-polyelectrolytes, Ag-citrate, and Ag-polyvinylpyrrolidone. The results showed that dilution alone induced aggregation and subsequent sedimentation of the NPs that were originally monodispersed at very high concentrations. Increased dilution caused NPs to progressively become unstable in the suspensions. The extent of the dilution impact on the stability of NPs is different for different types of NPs. We hypothesize that the unavoidable decrease in free ligand concentration in the aqueous phase following dilution causes detachment of ligands from the suspended NP cores. The ligands attached to NP core surfaces must generally approach exchange equilibrium with free ligands in the aqueous phase; therefore, ligand detachment and destabilization are expected consequences of dilution. More studies are necessary to test this hypothesis. Because the stability of NPs determines their physicochemical and kinetic behavior including toxicity, dilution-induced instability needs to be understood to realistically predict the behavior of engineered ligand-coated NPs in aqueous systems. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:1301-1308. © 2018 SETAC.

Topics: Cadmium Compounds; Dynamic Light Scattering; Fatty Acids; Filtration; Hydrodynamics; Ligands; Metal Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Quantum Dots; Silver; Sulfhydryl Compounds; Suspensions; Tellurium; Time Factors

Positively charged CdTe-QDs capped with cysteamine (CA-CdTe-QDs) and negatively charged AuNPs capped with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA-AuNPs) have been prepared. They are water-soluble and biocompatible. An assay for the determination of Pb2+ has been proposed based on the modulation in FRET efficiency between QDs and AuNPs in the presence of Pb2+, which inhibits the interaction of the QD-AuNP assembly. This method is easy to operate and with remarkably high sensitivity. Under the optimum conditions, the response is linearly proportional to the concentration of Pb2+ in the range 0.22-4.51 ppm, and the detection limit is found to be 30 ppb of Pb2+ due to the superior fluorescence properties of QDs. The mechanism of this strategy is also discussed.

Topics: Absorption; Cadmium Compounds; Cysteamine; Fatty Acids; Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; Gold; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Lead; Metal Nanoparticles; Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; Quantum Dots; Static Electricity; Sulfhydryl Compounds; Tellurium