One-Dimensional Fluorescent Silicon Nanorods Featuring Ultrahigh Photostability, Favorable Biocompatibility, and Excitation Wavelength-Dependent Emission Spectra.

ABSTRACT

We herein report a kind of one-dimensional biocompatible fluorescent silicon nanorods (SiNRs) with tunable lengths ranging ∼100-250 nm, which can be facilely prepared through one-pot microwave synthesis. In addition to the strong fluorescence (quantum yield value ∼15%) and negligible toxicity, the resultant SiNRs exhibit excitation wavelength-dependent photoluminescence whose maximum emission wavelength ranges from ∼450 to ∼600 nm under serial excitation wavelengths from 390 to 560 nm, providing feasibility for multicolor biological imaging. More significantly, the SiNRs are ultrahighly photostable, preserving strong and nearly unchanged fluorescence under 400 min high-power UV irradiation, which is in sharp contrast to severe fluorescence quenching of organic dyes (e.g., FITC) or II-VI quantum dots (QDs) (e.g., CdTe QDs and CdSe/ZnS QDs) within 15 or 160 min UV treatment under the same experiment conditions, respectively. Taking advantage of these attractive merits, we further exploit the SiNRs as a novel type of color converters for the construction of white light-emitting diodes (LED), which is the first proof-of-concept demonstration of LED device fabricated using the one-dimensional fluorescent silicon nanostructures.