Metal-enhanced fluorescence of CdTe nanocrystals in aqueous solution

Metal-enhanced fluorescence of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) is investigated. There is very little attention paid to the metal-enhanced fluorescence in aqueous solution, which has great potential applications in bioscience. In this work, we directly observe metal-enhanced fluorescence of CdTe NC solution by simply mixing CdTe NCs and Au nanoparticles, both of which are negatively charged. In order to study this kind of photoluminescence enhancement in aqueous solutions, we propose a calibration method, which takes into account the light attenuation in solutions. After consideration of the light weakening in transmission, the maximal PL enhancement is about 3 times as large as the ones without Au NPs. Some factors related to the enhanced magnitude of fluorescence, for instance, the concentration and the molar feed ratio of CdTe NCs and Au NPs, are studied in detail. Furthermore, the decreased lifetimes of CdTe NCs induced by Au NPs are also obtained, which are in accord with the enhancement of the photoluminescence.