We report here the study of two-photon induced luminescence of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid functionalized quantum-sized Au nanodots (11MUA-Au nanodots). The X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) measurement at the gold L III edge indicates that the oxidation state of the surface of 11MUA-Au nanodots is best described as Au + . The two-photon absorption (TPA) property of 11MUA-Au nanodots was then investigated via an open aperture Z-scan method. Together with a precise extinction coefficient (i.e., onephoton absorption) extracted from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, the TPA cross section, σ, was deduced to be 8761 ( 175 GM (800 nm) for 11MUA-Au nanodots (diameter 1.33 ( 0.12) in water. Upon dextran encapsulation, 11MUA-Au nanodots was proved to be highly water-soluble, stable, and low in toxicity, which demonstrated its power in two-photon imaging toward human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) in vitro.

Coinage metal cyanides efficiently react with a triphosphine. PPh2C6H4-PPh-C6H4PPh2 (P(3)). to give the complexes M(P(3))CN, where M = Cu (1), Ag (2), and Au (3), which can further interact with coordinatively unsaturated metal centers [M(P(3))](+) to give the homobimetallic [(P(3))M-CN-M(P(3))](+)X(-) [M = Cu (4a with X(-) = CF3SO3(-) and 4b with X(-) = BF4(-)), Ag (5)] or heterometallic [(P(3))Au-CN-Ag(P(3))](+) (6) species. Extension of this approach also provided the trinuclear complex [(P(3))Cu-NC-Au-CN-Cu(P(3))](+) (7). Compounds 1-5 were characterized in the solid state by X-ray crystallography. The NMR spectroscopic studies revealed that all of the complexes except 6 retain their structures in solution. The title compounds are luminescent in the solid state, with quantum yields ranging from 8 to 87%. The observed photoemission originates mainly from the metal-to-ligand charge-transfer states according to time-dependent density functional theory computational studies. The crystalline bimetallic Cu complexes 4a/4b demonstrate extremely high sensitivity of the emission intensity to molecular O2 (KSV1 = 639 atm(-1) and LOD = 0.010% for 3 times the signal-to-noise ratio).

Recombination dynamics in CdTe/CdSe core-shell type-II quantum dots (QDs) has been investigated by time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. A very long PL decay time of several hundred nanoseconds has been found at low temperature, which can be rationalized by the spatially separated electrons and holes occurring in a type-II heterostructure. For the temperature dependence of the radiative lifetime, the linewidth and the peak energy of PL spectra show that the recombination of carriers is dominated by delocalized excitons at temperatures below 150 K, while the mixture of delocalized excitons, electrons and holes overwhelms the process at higher temperature. The binding energy of delocalized excitons obtained from the temperature dependence of the non-radiative lifetime is consistent with the theoretical value. The energy dependence of lifetime measurements reveals a third power relationship between the radiative lifetime and the radius of QDs, the light of which can be shed by the quantum confinement effect. In addition, the radiative decay rate is found to be proportional to the square root of excitation power, arising from the change of wavefunction overlap of electrons and holes due to the band bending effect, which is an inherent character of a type-II band alignment.