EAGER: New Ligand Shells for Small Quantum Dots

EAGER：用于小量子点的新配体壳

• 批准号: 1216342
• 负责人: Paul Selvin
• 金额: $ 29.74万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1216342&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; New; Ligand; Shells; Small

Intellectual merit. When proteins are tagged with reporter labels to trace the locations and movements of the proteins on or within cells, the physical size of the label can be quite significant. This is especially true for the popular class of labels called quantum dots (qdots), which are inorganic crystals with intense fluorescence. The core of a qdot is fairly small, 2-4 nm, but is completely insoluble. To make them soluble in water-based buffers requires a hydrophobic-hydrophilic ligand shell. Commercially-available qdots are typically 21 nm in diameter. The research will make a ligand-shield that is only about 2 nm thick. The shield will have a sulfur atom that binds the qdot-core very tightly. This sulfur will either be a thiol, a thioether, or a thioketone. This sulfur will also have a polyethylene glycol, making the entity water soluble. It may have a negative or positive charge to reduce non-specific sticking. Finally, it will have a bioreactive entity for coupling.Broader Impacts. Quantum dots have tremendous potential as incredibly bright fluorophores for labeling proteins. However, their large size has limited their usefulness as biological tracers. The research presented here intends to overcome this limitation by providing to the research community methods to make a new class of water-soluble quantum dots that are significantly smaller than those currently commercially available. The research provides excellent training for synthetic chemists and graduate students who are interested in basic optics, microscopy, and spectroscopy.

智力上的优点。 当用报告标记来标记蛋白质以追踪细胞上或细胞内蛋白质的位置和运动时，标记的物理尺寸可能非常重要。对于称为量子点 (qdot) 的流行标签尤其如此，量子点是具有强烈荧光的无机晶体。 qdot 的核心相当小，为 2-4 nm，但完全不溶。为了使它们可溶于水基缓冲液，需要疏水-亲水配体外壳。市售量子点的直径通常为 21 nm。 该研究将制造厚度仅为约 2 nm 的配体屏蔽。该屏蔽层将具有一个硫原子，该硫原子可以非常紧密地结合 qdot 核心。该硫可以是硫醇、硫醚或硫酮。 这种硫还含有聚乙二醇，使该实体溶于水。它可以带有负电荷或正电荷以减少非特异性粘附。最后，它将具有用于耦合的生物反应实体。更广泛的影响。量子点作为极其明亮的荧光团在标记蛋白质方面具有巨大的潜力。然而，它们的大尺寸限制了它们作为生物示踪剂的用途。这里介绍的研究旨在通过向研究界提供制造一类新型水溶性量子点的方法来克服这一限制，这些量子点比目前市售的量子点小得多。该研究为对基础光学、显微镜和光谱学感兴趣的合成化学家和研究生提供了良好的培训。