2 research outputs found
Supplementary document for Optical Center of a Luminescent Solar Concentrator - 6030370.pdf
Supporting content
Color-Switchable Nanosilicon Fluorescent Probes
Fluorescent probes are vital to cell imaging by allowing
specific
parts of cells to be visualized and quantified. Color-switchable probes
(CSPs), with tunable emission wavelength upon contact with specific
targets, are particularly powerful because they not only eliminate
the need to wash away all unbound probe but also allow for internal
controls of probe concentrations, thereby facilitating quantification.
Several such CSPs exist and have proven very useful, but not for all
key cellular targets. Here we report a pioneering CSP for in situ
cell imaging using aldehyde-functionalized silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs)
that switch their intrinsic photoluminescence from red to blue quickly
when interacting with amino acids in live cells. Though conventional
probes often work better in cell-free extracts than in live cells,
the SiNCs display the opposite behavior and function well and fast
in universal cell lines at 37 °C while requiring much higher
temperature in extracts. Furthermore, the SiNCs only disperse in cytoplasm
not nucleus, and their fluorescence intensity correlated linearly
with the concentration of fed amino acids. We believe these nanosilicon
probes will be promising tools to visualize distribution of amino
acids and potentially quantify amino acid related processes in live
cells