Silicon nanocrystals are intriguing materials for biomedical imaging applications because of their unique optical properties and biological compatibility. We report a new surface functionalization route to synthesize biological buffer soluble and colloidally stable silicon nanocrystals, which is enabled by surface boron doping. Harnessing the distinctive Lewis acidic boron surface sites, postsynthetic modifications of plasma synthesized boron doped nanocrystals were carried out with polyethylene glycol (PEG-OH) ligands in dimethyl sulfoxide under photochemical conditions. The influence of PEG concentration, PEG molecular weight, and boron doping percentage on the nanocrystal solubility in a biological buffer has been investigated. The boron doping facilitates the surface functionalization via two probable pathways, by providing excellent initial dispersiblity in polar solvents and providing available acidic boron surface sites for bonding. These boron doped silicon nanocrystals have nearly identical absorption features as intrinsic silicon nanocrystals, indicating that they are promising candidates for biological imaging applications.
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7 December 2019
Rapid Communication|
December 02 2019
Synthesis of PEG-grafted boron doped Si nanocrystals
Special Collection:
Colloidal Quantum Dots
Jesse R. Greenhagen;
Jesse R. Greenhagen
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
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Himashi P. Andaraarachchi;
Himashi P. Andaraarachchi
a)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
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Zhaohan Li;
Zhaohan Li
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
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Uwe R. Kortshagen
Uwe R. Kortshagen
a)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
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Note: This paper is part of the JCP Special Topic on Colloidal Quantum Dots.
J. Chem. Phys. 151, 211103 (2019)
Article history
Received:
September 20 2019
Accepted:
November 08 2019
Citation
Jesse R. Greenhagen, Himashi P. Andaraarachchi, Zhaohan Li, Uwe R. Kortshagen; Synthesis of PEG-grafted boron doped Si nanocrystals. J. Chem. Phys. 7 December 2019; 151 (21): 211103. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5128608
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