I've been getting down to business writing my PHYS3900 pop science article on the contributions of physics to fluorescence microscopy (following on from my last post about nanodiamonds). Whilst reading about quantum dots I came across a `review' from Science Magazine and thought it was such a nice informative piece that I should post it here. It is quite readable and interesting without drowning in technical details (although there is a time and place for technicality!).
Quite briefly, quantum dots are small semiconductor structures which support delocalised electronic excitations, meaning that they can be fluorescent. The delocalisation ensures that the energy levels are determined by the size of the dot, rather than the atomic energy levels, so emitted light can take on a wide range of colours (no two dots are quite the same yet because they are self-assembled). They are attractive as fluorescent markers because of this property.
Drawbacks include cytotoxicity (ranging from severe to negligible, depending on the materials) and blinking (intermittent loss of fluorescence activity due to electron trapping).
I also found out that it is possible to make blue fluorescent nanodiamonds by coating them with a hydrophobic film.
My completed article will be posted soon!
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