Mercaptoacetic acid (MAA) and mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals were synthesized and their physical characteristics were examined by XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The optical properties of the MPA capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals dispersed in aqueous solution were also measured by UV/Vis and solution photoluminescence (PL) spectra, which showed a broad emission peak around 598 nm (orange light emissions) with calculated relative PL efficiency of 5.2%. Comparative toxicity evaluation of the uncoordinated ligands, MAA and MPA, with the corresponding ZnS:Mn nanocrystals revealed that the original ligands significantly suppressed the growth of wild type E. coli whereas the ligandcapped nanocrystals did not show significant toxic effects. The reduced cytotoxicity of the conjugated ZnS:Mn nanocrystals was also observed in NIH/3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results imply that potential toxicities of the capping ligands can be neutralized on ZnS:Mn surface.
Water-dispersible ZnS:Mn nanocrystals were synthesized by capping the surface of the nanocrystal with O-(2-Aminoethyl)polyethylene glycol (PEG-NH 2 , Mw = 10,000 g/mol) and O-(2-Carboxyethyl)polyethylene glycol (PEG-COOH, Mw = 10,000 g/mol) molecules. The modified PEG capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystal powders were thoroughly characterized by XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, ICP-AES and FT-IR spectroscopy. The optical properties were also measured by UV/Vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. The PL spectra showed broad emission peaks at 600 nm with similar PL efficiencies of 7.68% (ZnS:Mn-PEG-NH2) and 9.18% (ZnS:Mn-PEG-COOH) respectively. The measured average particle sizes for the modified PEG capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals by HR-TEM images were 5.6 nm (ZnS:Mn-PEG-NH2) and 6.4 nm (ZnS:Mn-PEG-COOH), which were also supported by Debye-Scherrer calculations. In addition, biological toxicity effects of the nanocrystals over the growth of wild type E. coli were investigated. They showed no biological toxicity to E. coli until very high concentration dosage of 1 mg/mL of the both nanocrystal samples.
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