Highly Efficient Visible Blue-Emitting Black Phosphorus Quantum Dot: Mussel-Inspired Surface Functionalization for Bioapplications

Miyeon Lee; Young Ho Park; Eun Bi Kang; Ari Chae; Yujin Choi; Seongho Jo; Yu Jin Kim; Soo-Jin Park; Byunggak Min; Tae Kyu An; Jihoon Lee; Su-Il In; Sang Youl Kim; Sung Young Park; Insik In

doi:10.1021/acsomega.7b01058

Highly Efficient Visible Blue-Emitting Black Phosphorus Quantum Dot: Mussel-Inspired Surface Functionalization for Bioapplications

ACS Omega. 2017 Oct 31;2(10):7096-7105. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b01058. Epub 2017 Oct 23.

Authors

Miyeon Lee¹, Young Ho Park², Eun Bi Kang³, Ari Chae³, Yujin Choi³, Seongho Jo³, Yu Jin Kim⁴, Soo-Jin Park⁵, Byunggak Min³, Tae Kyu An³, Jihoon Lee³, Su-Il In², Sang Youl Kim¹, Sung Young Park^{3

3}, Insik In^{3

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, KAIST, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea.
² Department of Energy System Engineering, DGIST, Daegu 42988, South Korea.
³ Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, and Department of IT Convergence (Brain Korea PLUS 21), Korea National University of Transportation, 50 Daehak-ro, Chungju-si, Chungbuk 27909, South Korea.
⁴ Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, South Korea.

Abstract

The preparation of blue-emitting black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) is based on the liquid-phase exfoliation of bulk BP. We report the synthesis of soluble BPQDs showing a strong visible blue-light emission. Highly fluorescent (photoluminescence quantum yield of ≈5% with the maximum emission (λ_max) at ≈437 nm) and dispersible BPQDs in various organic solvents are first prepared by simple ultrasonication of BP crystals in chloroform in the ambient atmosphere. Furthermore, simple mussel-inspired surface functionalization of BPQDs with catechol-grafted poly(ethylene glycol) in basic buffer afforded water-soluble blue-emitting BPQDs showing long-term fluorescence stability, very low cytotoxicity, and excellent fluorescence live cell imaging capability.