Advances in Engineering Advances in Engineering features breaking research judged by Advances in Engineering advisory team to be of key importance in the Engineering field. Papers are selected from over 10,000 published each week from most peer reviewed journals.
Microelectronic Engineering, 16 February 2013.
Ferruccio Pisanello, Luigi Martiradonna, Leonardo Sileo, Virgilio Brunetti, Giuseppe Vecchio, Maria Ada Malvindi, Giovanni Morello, Marco Zanella, Pier Paolo Pompa, Liberato Manna, Massimo De Vittorio
Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies@UniLe, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Arnesano (LE), Italy
Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UNITN, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rovereto (TN), Italy
Università del Salento, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, NNL-National Nanotechnology Laboratory, Lecce, Italy
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), via Morego 30, Genova I-16163, Italy
Abstract
Polydimethylsiloxane doped with colloidal CdSe/CdS nanocrystals is proposed as high-luminescent and biocompatible nanocomposite. A physical mixing procedure has been adopted to realize the optically active material and spectral and time-resolved optical analysis has been carried out in order to proof that nanocrystals quantum properties are preserved into the polymeric host matrix. Biocompatibility tests have shown no cadmium release in water ambient and no differences have been observed in cell viability cultured on pure PDMS substrates and on nanocomposite films. The obtained results let us envision possible applications of the proposed material as luminescent substrate for label-free cell imaging compatible with the most common optical microscopy techniques.
Additional Information:
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) doped with colloidal CdSe/CdS nanocrystals is proposed as high-luminescent and biocompatible nanocomposite. Spectral and time-resolved optical analysis have shown that nanocrystals quantum properties are preserved into the polymeric host matrix. No cadmium release in water ambient was detected and no differences have been observed in cell viability cultured on pure PDMS substrates and on nanocomposite films. The obtained results let us envision possible applications of the proposed material as luminescent substrate for label-free cell imaging compatible with the most common optical microscopy techniques.
