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Handbook of Photonics for Biomedical Engineering pp 841–870Cite as

Cadmium-Free Quantum Dots for Biophotonic Imaging and Sensing

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Abstract

The use of cadmium-based quantum dots (QDs) in biomedical applications has made substantial progress during the past few years. However, several environmental, clinical, and toxicological groups have raised serious concerns related to cadmium-based toxicity and are doubtful about using cadmium-based QDs for clinical research. Studies have shown that some cadmium-based QD formulations induced in vitro and in vivo toxicity when they degrade and release cadmium ions in the biological environment. This concern has prompted the QD community to explore new means to design and develop next generation of cadmium-free QDs for replacing the commonly used heavy-metal-based nanocrystals in biological sciences research and applications. With the advancement of solution-phase synthesis methods, a series of QDs based on indium phosphide (InP), copper indium sulfide (CuInS2), silver indium sulfide (AgInS2), silver sulfide (Ag2S), doped Zn chalcogenide, carbon (C), and silicon (Si) have been successfully developed, which bear a strong resemblance to the cadmium-based QDs in terms of their optical property and colloidal stability. Many research groups have started to use these cadmium-free QDs and evaluate them using various in vitro and in vivo models. However, there remain some challenges that need to be overcome before perfecting the bioconjugated cadmium-free QD formulations for biomedical applications and translational medicine research. In this review, our aim is to provide an overview and discussions on the current findings and challenges in designing and applying colloidal cadmium-free nanocrystals as the next generation of optical nanoprobes for theranostic use. In particular, we highlight the current trend in the synthesis and surface modification of cadmium-free QDs, the use of bioconjugated cadmium-free QDs for in vitro and in vivo imaging and sensing, surface-cell labeling with QDs, biodistribution of cadmium-free QDs, and the potential toxicity of cadmium-free QDs from cellular to nonhuman primate models. Such information will be viable in generating a set of guidelines for engineering clinically usable QDs for applications ranging from optical image-guided surgery to targeted stem cell therapy research.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

      Butian Zhang, Yucheng Wang, Rui Hu & Ken-Tye Yong

    2. Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

      Indrajit Roy

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    Correspondence to Ken-Tye Yong .

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    1. Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

      Aaron Ho-Pui Ho

    2. School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

      Donghyun Kim

    3. Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

      Michael G. Somekh

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    Zhang, B., Wang, Y., Hu, R., Roy, I., Yong, KT. (2017). Cadmium-Free Quantum Dots for Biophotonic Imaging and Sensing. In: Ho, AP., Kim, D., Somekh, M. (eds) Handbook of Photonics for Biomedical Engineering. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5052-4_7

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