Luminescence and bio-imaging response of thio-glycolic acid (TGA) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-coated fluorescent cadmium selenide quantum dots

We demonstrate the usefulness of surfactant coated CdSe quantum dots in bio-imaging applications after evaluating their steady state and time resolved emission responses. The surfactant coated QDs, with the respective sizes of ~14 nm and 10 nm are synthesized considering two different types of coating agents, namely, thio-glycolic acid (TGA) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The steady state luminescence response is characterized by both near band edge (NBE) and defect-related emissions, but with a strong dependency on the nature of surfactant coating. Time resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) studies have revealed bi-exponential characteristics with CdSe–TGA QDs exhibiting longer life time decay parameters than those of CdSe–SDS QDs. To be specific, the fast (τ₁) and the slow (τ₂) components are characterized by ~10 and 30 times larger values in the former than the latter case. In the FT-IR spectra, several stretching and bending vibrations are observed to be adequately influenced by the nature of surfactant coating. The availability of plentiful Na⁺ counter ions around SDS coated QDs, as evident from the FT-IR spectroscopy studies, can also be responsible for obtaining reduced size of the QDs. In contrast, Raman active modes are apparently distinguishable in TGA coated QDs, with LO and TO mode positions significantly blue-shifted from the bulk values. While attributing to the intense defect mediated emission of TGA coated QDs, the effect of TGA coating presented a stronger fluorescence imaging capability over the SDS coated ones. A detailed assessment of fluorescent counts, as a basis of bio-imaging response, is being discussed on a comparative basis. - Highlights: • Fluorescent CdSe quantum dots are synthesized with two different kinds of surfactant coatings. • Time resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) studies have revealed bi-exponential decay characteristics. • Both slow and fast decay parameters are found to be longer in CdSe QDs with TGA coating. • Strong bio-imaging capability is realized for TGA-coated QDs over SDS coated ones