Enhancing the photoluminescence of peptide-coated nanocrystals

Colloidal NCs consist of an inorganic particle and an organic coating that determines their solubility, functionality, and influences their photophysics. In order for these NCs to be biocompatible, they must be water-soluble, nontoxic to the cell, and offer conjugation chemistries for attaching recognition molecules to their surfaces. In addition they should efficiently target to biomolecules of interest, be chemically stable, and preserve their high photostability. The requirements for their application in single-molecule biological studies are even more stringent: fluorescent NCs should be monodisperse, have relatively small size (to limit steric hindrance), reduced blinking, large saturation intensity, and high quantum yield (QY).