Semiconductor nanocrystals exhibit unique optical and physical properties that make them an attractive alternative to organic dyes for fluorescent bioapplications. Although significant advances have been made since their first reported use in biology a decade ago, it still remains a challenge to prepare high quality, biocompatible semiconductor nanocrystals. / In this thesis, studies are described with the aim to prepare robust, biocompatible semiconductor nanocrystals that exhibit each of the properties necessary for their implementation in biological applications. Two different approaches were investigated: ligand exchange and polymer encapsulation, and advances in each are presented. A heterobifunctional ligand suitable for bioconjugation, carboxyl terminated dihydrolipoic acid poly(ethylene glycol) (DHLA-PEG-COOH), was synthesised and characterised to prepare water-soluble, biocompatible semiconductor nanocrystals via ligand exchange. It was found that nanocrystals transferred into water using DHLA-PEG-COOH exhibit the same optical properties and colloidal stability as those prepared using DHLA-PEG. It was demonstrated that the surface charge of the nanocrystals may be controlled by altering the ratio of DHLA-PEG:DHLA-PEG- COOH ligands. In a different approach, colloidally stable, biocompatible nanocrystals were prepared via polymer encapsulation. It was found that by employing a low molecular weight polymer, biocompatible nanocrystals that exhibit a small hydrodynamic diameter could be realised. / Experimental results are presented on the conjugation of biocompatible nanocrystals to protein targets. It was found that while standard coupling chemistries yield protein-dye conjugates, these chemistries did not result in protein-nanocrystal conjugates. In order to overcome the drawbacks of standard coupling chemistries, which are susceptible to hydrolysis, a novel conjugation scheme utilising copper-free click chemistry is proposed. / Finally, the success of nanocrystals in bioapplications depends on the ability to characterise nanocrystal-protein conjugates. By means of analytical ultracentrifugation, data on the sedimentation properties of nanocrystals and nanocrystal-protein conjugates was obtained. Analysis of these data provided information on fundamental physical properties of biocompatible nanocrystals and nanocrystal-protein conjugates, in particular the core crystal size, hydrodynamic size, number of surface ligands and nanocrystal:protein stoichiometry. Such a precise, comprehensive characterisation of nanocrystals in general, and nanocrystal-protein conjugates in particular, will greatly facilitate their use in bioapplications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/272927 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Lees, Emma E. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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