Forcespinning fabrication of CdTe-quantum dot/polylactic acid microfibers for novel surface-engineered application

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this work was to prepare and characterize color-tunable luminescent nanocomposite fibers composed of CdTe quantum dots (CdTe-QDs) and polylactic acid (PLA) via nanoprecipitation. This method provides a simple procedure to incorporate QDs with various emission wavelengths onto nanofibers’ surfaces. A one-pot microwave irradiation method was employed to prepare green- to red-emitting 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-capped CdTe-QDs with high luminescence. Microfiber PLA membranes were produced via forcespinning. These nanofibers can integrate the luminescent properties of CdTe-QDs and extend their advantages to fiber-based structures. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–vis) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the CdTe-QDs. TEM images revealed that the CdTe-QDs were 4 nm in size. The CdTe-QDs’ effect on the microfibers were characterized morphologically via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which showed that the average diameter of the CdTe-QDs/PLA nanofibers was 3.5 μm. They were optically analyzed by photoluminescence (PL), absorption spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and confocal fluorescence microscopy. FTIR revealed strong interactions between the MAP stabilizing agents and PLA fibers. These preliminary results demonstrate that these microfibers have potential for biological labeling and diagnostics based on their properties.