Effects of N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine on the properties of CdTe quantum dots

Here, we report a simple way for water soluble thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) to spontaneously self-assemble into low-dimensional nanorods from individual nanoparticles; at the same time, the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the QDs is greatly enhanced by on average 7 times. These interesting phenomena are obtained by the addition of a small molecule, N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED). The self-assembly is due to the strong dipole–dipole interaction capable of producing chains of nanocrystals. The enhancement mechanism is attributed to surface passivation of CdTe by TEMED. Based on this approach, an experiment detecting goat anti-rabbit antibody (Abs) is conducted. The results demonstrate that CdTe nanorods can be used as a fluorescent probe for biochemical analysis and are superior to the pure CdTe QDs probe. The findings demonstrate that the low-dimensional nanocrystals formed have fine optical characteristics and potential in biochemical analysis.