Hydrophobic core-shell nanodots

Highly luminescent inorganic semiconductor nanodots are synthesized typically by the high temperature organometallic synthesis. This procedure gives the nanodots having on their surface the stabilizing shell of hydrophobic organic molecules (mostly trioctylphosphine oxide). The presence of organic molecules on the surface makes the original nanodots soluble only in certain organic solvents, such as toluene, chloroform, hexane, tetrahydrofuran, pyridine etc. The special chemical post treatment of nanodots must be done in order to make them soluble in water or the polar organic solvents, like alcohols (see, below in the chapter Water-soluble core-shell nanodots). The original hydrophobic core-shell nanodots may be utilized in the various applications where the materials and structures containing nanodots are prepared using the nonpolar organic solvents. Such applications may include the preparation of thin polymeric films via spin and dip casting, bulk polymeric parts via block polymerization, polymeric latexes etc. Also, hydrophobic nanodots may be used for further water solubilization for the biological, biomedical and nanotechnological applications.