The preparation of CdTe nanoparticles and CdTe nanoparticle‐labelled microspheres for biological applications

Different sizes of CdTe semiconductor nanoparticles were prepared in aqueous solution. These nanoparticles exhibit narrow fluorescence with full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 35-45 nm that spans the visible spectrum, and they also have high PL quantum yield with high resistance to photodegradation. In addition, CdTe quantum dot (QD)-labelled microspheres, comprising polystyrene (PS) cores and CdTe/polyelectrolyte (PE) shells, were also prepared by the layer-by-layer technique in this paper. The optical properties of the CdTe nanoparticles and CdTe-labelled microspheres were investigated by UV-Visible absorption and luminescence spectroscopy, and fluorescence microscopy was employed for microscopic identification behaviour of the luminescent microspheres.