Characterization of Cr(V)-induced genotoxicity using CdTe nanocrystals as fluorescent probes.

CdTe nanocrystals capped by cysteamine were synthesized to study Cr(V)-induced genotoxicity. On the surface of TiO2 thin films, the stepwise process of DNA breakage induced by Cr(V)-GSH complexes was vividly observed by using CdTe-DNA self-assembled fluorescent probes; in acetate buffer solution, an analytical method was developed to detect Cr(V)-induced genotoxicity with CdTe fluorescent probes.

[Characterization of processing batch for preparation of radix scutellariae based on dependent component analysis and infrared spectrometry].

Dependent component analysis (DCA) was applied to directly estimate source spectral profiles from IR spectra of synthetic mixtures and characterize processing batch for preparation of radix scutellariae. The results show that DCA can estimate information of dependent components (DCs) from the measured infrared spectral (IR) signal obtained during the processing batch for preparation of radix scutellariae, and the estimated information of DCs is corresponding to the IR features of the active components of scutelliare; by inspection of the change trends of the estimated DCs, the endpoint of the processing batch was determined as 55 min. The proposed approach provides a novel way for process analysis and endpoint determination of procedure for preparation of scutellariae.

Flow injection analysis of volatile phenols in environmental water samples using CdTe/ZnSe nanocrystals as a fluorescent probe.

On the basis of flow injection analysis technology, a simple, accurate, and sensitive method has been developed for the determination of volatile phenols in environmental water samples by using CdTe/ZnSe nanocrystals as a fluorescent probe. The influences of coexisting metal ions and volatile phenol substitutes were also investigated. The method developed for analysis of volatile phenols displayed very good linearity in the range from 1.0 × 10(-8) to 4.0 × 10(-7) g L(-1), with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.995 and a detection limit down to 2.7 × 10(-9) g L(-1) (signal-to-noise ratio 3). The proposed method was successfully applied to determine the content of volatile phenols in environmental water samples, and the quantitative recoveries were 93.4-106.1%. A possible reaction mechanism for the quenching of fluorescence is discussed using UV-vis absorption spectra, fluorescence spectra, and time-resolved luminescence spectra of volatile phenols obtained by titrating a CdTe/ZnSe nanocrystal aqueous solution and zeta potential data.

[Extraction of spectral information of additives from activated manganese dioxide products using adaptive kernel independent component analysis].

The additives were abstracted from the manganese dioxide products with four kinds of organic solvents, ether, acetone, chloroform and toluene. The extracts were then baked and their attenuated total reflectance (ATR) FTIR spectra were measured using liquid membrane method. The number of chemical components of the additives was determined by median absolute deviation (MAD), and the spectral information of the pure component was extracted by kernel independent component analysis (KICA). The extracted spectral information of the additives is accordant to that of the practically used compounds. An adaptive kernel independent component analysis (AKICA) was proposed for directive extraction of spectral information from chemical mixtures. The results demonstrated that the AKICA method provides an alternative approach to extracting spectral information from the chemical mixtures without previously chemical or physical preseparation for direct extracting spectral information of pure components in the mixed system.

In situ synthesis of highly luminescent glutathione-capped CdTe/ZnS quantum dots with biocompatibility.

This paper focuses on the in situ synthesis of novel CdTe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) in aqueous solution. Glutathione (GSH) was used as both capping reagent and sulfur source for in situ growth of ZnS shell on the CdTe core QDs. The maximum emission wavelengths of the prepared CdTe/ZnS QDs can be simply tuned from 569 nm to 630 nm. The PL quantum yield of CdTe/ZnS QDs synthesized is up to 84%, larger than the original CdTe QDs by around 1.7 times. The PL lifetime results reveal a triexponential decay model of exciton and trap radiation behavior. The average exciton lifetime at room temperature is 17.1 ns for CdTe (2.8 nm) and 27.4 ns for CdTe/ZnS (3.7 nm), respectively. When the solution of QDs is dialyzed for 3 h, 1.17 ppm of Cd(2+) is released from CdTe QDs and 0.35 ppm is released from CdTe/ZnS. At the dose of 120 microg/ml QDs, 9.5% of hemolysis was induced by CdTe QDs and 3.9% was induced by CdTe/ZnS QDs. These results indicate that the synthesized glutathione-capped CdTe/ZnS QDs are of less toxicity and better biocompatibility, so that are attractive for use in biological detection and related fields.

Selective synthesis of CdTe and high luminescence CdTe/CdS quantum dots: the effect of ligands.

This paper describes the selective syntheses of high luminescence CdTe and core-shell CdTe/CdS quantum dots (QDs) in aqueous solution by simple heating refluxing at 100 degrees C. CdTe QDs are prepared by using three kinds of ligands (thioglycolic acid-TGA, tiopronin-TP, and glutathione-GSH) as stabilizer, respectively. The results of refluxing for 10 min to several hours indicate that GSH-capped CdTe QDs have higher photoluminescence quantum yields (QY 54%) than TGA (QY 41%)- and TP (QY 24%)-stabilized CdTe QDs. Further, using TP-CdTe as core template and GSH as stabilizer and sulfur source, high luminescence GSH-capped CdTe/CdS core-shell QDs have been successfully synthesized in aqueous solution by simple refluxing at 100 degrees C. The GSH-CdTe/CdS QDs exhibit high fluorescence QYs about 55% over a broad spectral range of 530-588 nm, with the best QY of 83%. TP-stabilized CdTe/CdS QDs are also synthesized with TP as stabilizer and thioacetamide (TAA) as sulfur source, and with the best QY of 80%. GSH-stabilized CdTe and CdTe/CdS QDs are highly biocompatible, monodispersed, and stable under physiological conditions. The method of QDs prepared using GSH is simple and environmentally friendly, and it can be easily extended to the large-scale, aqueous-phase production of QDs.