Quantum Dots: Synthesis, Antibody Conjugation, and HER2-Receptor Targeting for Breast Cancer Therapy

Breast cancer is becoming one of the main lethal carcinomas in the recent era, and its occurrence rate is increasing day by day. There are different breast cancer biomarkers, and their overexpression takes place in the metastasis of cancer cells. The most prevalent breast cancer biomarker is the human epidermal growth factor receptor2 (HER2). As this biomarker is overexpressed in malignant breast tissues, it has become the main focus in targeted therapies to fight breast cancer. There is a cascade of mechanisms involved in metastasis and cell proliferation in cancer cells. Nanotechnology has become extremely advanced in targeting and imaging cancerous cells. Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor NPs, and they are used for bioimaging, biolabeling, and biosensing. They are synthesized by different approaches such as top-down, bottom-up, and synthetic methods. Fully human monoclonal antibodies synthesized using transgenic mice having human immunoglobulin are used to target malignant cells. For the HER2 receptor, herceptin® (trastuzumab) is the most specific antibody (Ab), and it is conjugated with QDs by using different types of coupling mechanisms. This quantum dot monoclonal antibody (QD-mAb) conjugate is localized by injecting it into the blood vessel. After the injection, it goes through a series of steps to reach the intracellular space, and bioimaging of specifically the HER2 receptor occurs, where apoptosis of the cancer cells takes place either by the liberation of Ab or the free radicals.

Broad-Band Photodetectors Based on Copper Indium Diselenide Quantum Dots in a Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Matrix

Low-temperature solution-processed methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) crystalline films have shown outstanding performance in optoelectronic devices. However, their high dark current and high noise equivalent power prevent their application in broad-band photodetectors. Here, we applied a facile solution-based antisolvent strategy to fabricate a hybrid structure of CuInSe₂ quantum dots (CISe QDs) embedded into a MAPbI₃ matrix, which not only enhances the photodetector responsivity, showing a large on/off ratio of 10⁴ at 2 V bias compared with the bare perovskite films, but also significantly (for over 7 days) improves the device stability, with hydrophobic ligands on the CuInSe₂ QDs acting as a barrier against the uptake of environmental moisture. MAPbI₃/CISe QD-based lateral photodetectors exhibit high responsivities of >0.5 A/W and 10.4 mA/W in the visible and near-infrared regions, respectively, partly because of the formation of a type II interface between the respective semiconductors but most significantly because of the efficient trap-state passivation of the perovskite grain surfaces, and the reduction in the twinning-induced trap density, which stems from both CISe QDs and their organic ligands. A large specific detectivity of 2.2 × 10¹² Jones at 525 nm illumination (1 μW/cm²), a fast fall time of 236 μs, and an extremely low noise equivalent power of 45 fW/Hz^1/2 have been achieved.

Synthesis and characterisation of [Cu4In(PPh3)3SePh(μ-SePh)3(μ3-SePh)3], and its application as a precursor of a sensitizer for a photocatalyst

An active and robust photocatalyst for water splitting.

Investigation of biocompatible and protein sensitive highly luminescent quantum dots/nanocrystals of CdSe, CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS

The size and shape dependent semiconductor quantum dots (0D nanoparticles) with color tunability demonstrating significant influence in a biological system and considered as ideal probes. Here, a non-coordinated colloidal approach was used for the synthesis of CdSe, CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) of 3-4nm. The synthesized nanocrystals show a high crystallinity, examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM). The core-shell semiconductor QDs exhibit stronger photoluminescence (PL) as compared to the core QDs. The strong PL with small full-width half maximum (FWHM) indicates that the prepared QDs have a nearly uniform size distribution and well dispersibility. The quantum yield (QY) of core-shell QDs increases due to the surface passivation. Further, the PL of BSA is quenched strongly by the presence of core-shell QDs and follows the well-known Stern-Volmer (S-V) relation, whereas the PL lifetime does not follow the S-V relation, demonstrating that the observed quenching is predominantly static in nature. Among CdSe core, CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS core-shell QDs, the CdSe/ZnS QDs shows the least cytotoxicity and most biocompatibility. Thus, the prepared core-shell QDs are biocompatible and exhibit strong sensing ability.

Compound Copper Chalcogenide Nanocrystals

This review captures the synthesis, assembly, properties, and applications of copper chalcogenide NCs, which have achieved significant research interest in the last decade due to their compositional and structural versatility. The outstanding functional properties of these materials stems from the relationship between their band structure and defect concentration, including charge carrier concentration and electronic conductivity character, which consequently affects their optoelectronic, optical, and plasmonic properties. This, combined with several metastable crystal phases and stoichiometries and the low energy of formation of defects, makes the reproducible synthesis of these materials, with tunable parameters, remarkable. Further to this, the review captures the progress of the hierarchical assembly of these NCs, which bridges the link between their discrete and collective properties. Their ubiquitous application set has cross-cut energy conversion (photovoltaics, photocatalysis, thermoelectrics), energy storage (lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen generation), emissive materials (plasmonics, LEDs, biolabelling), sensors (electrochemical, biochemical), biomedical devices (magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray computer tomography), and medical therapies (photochemothermal therapies, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and drug delivery). The confluence of advances in the synthesis, assembly, and application of these NCs in the past decade has the potential to significantly impact society, both economically and environmentally.

Mn doped CdS passivated CuInSe2 quantum dot sensitized solar cells with remarkably enhanced photovoltaic efficiency

This paper explores that novel architecture of CuInSe₂/Mn-CdS exhibits remarkable enhancement in photovoltaic performance of the QDSSCs, which presents an excellent power conversion efficiency of 3.96%.

All-solid-state quantum dot-sensitized solar cell from plastic crystal electrolyte

A plastic crystal based solid-state electrolyte composing of plastic crystal succinonitrile and sodium sulfide (Na₂S) is creatively synthesized by a simple blending approach.