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No fear of water: Hydrophobic nanocrystals (NCs) are converted into hydrophilic ones by dual-interaction ligands, which bind onto the surface of NCs by coordinate bonding and hydrophobic van der Waals interactions. The resulting NCs have high stability in aqueous solutions over a wide pH range (1–14), salt concentrations, and thermal treatments. Quantum dots coated with these ligands are excellent fluorescence labels for immunostaining tests.
Wu et al. (2008) studied this question.