Synthesis of SiO₂≅CdSe nanoparticles: Dispersion and optical properties

Uniform SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles were obtained by using electrostatic adsorption of CdSe onto the surface of the monodisperse silica. SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles presented stronger fluorescence intensity compared to that of dispersant coated CdSe nanoparticles ascribe to naked CdSe. Its application as donor or acceptor in a FRET system was also investigated in this work, and the results showed that SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles can act as donor or acceptor in the FRET system. Because of naked CdSe particles, the ability of electron donor or acceptance of SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles was much better than that of dispersant coated CdSe nanoparticles. The mechanism of formation of SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles was also discussed in this paper. The obtained SiO₂@CdSe nanoparticles can be dispersed well in ethanol or solid film, resulting in better optical properties compared to that of dispersant coated CdSe nanoparticles.