Synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of gum arabic surface modified cadmium telluride quantum dots
Date
2020Author
Edwina, Uzunuigbe O
Kiplagat, Ayabei
Sibuyi, Nicole R. S.
Meyer, Mervin
Kappo, Abidemi Paul
Onani, Martin O
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Water-soluble cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) were capped with gum Arabic (GA) is a non-toxic,
water-soluble glycoprotein polymer commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The GA was
used to stabilise cadmium telluride quantum dots (GA-QDs) and provides functional groups for other molecules
such as nucleic acids, peptides and antibodies to be attached to the QDs for biological and biomedical applications.
In this study, the GA was used to cap and stabilise QDs using two different methods. These QDs
were characterised using Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, X-powder ray
diffraction (XRD), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, zeta potential and particle size distributions.
Cytotoxicity of these QDs was also investigated using four different human cell lines; HeLa, MCF-7, PC-3
and U87 cancer cells.