Sized controlled synthesis, purification, and cell studies with silicon quantum dots

This article describes the size control synthesis of silicon quantum dots with simple microemulsion techniques. The silicon nanocrystals are small enough to be in the strong confinement regime and photoluminesce in the blue region of the visible spectrum and the emission can be tuned by changing the nanocrystal size. The silicon quantum dots were capped with allylamine either a platinum catalyst or UV-radiation. An extensive purification protocol is reported and assessed using (1)H NMR to produce ultra pure silicon quantum dots suitable for biological studies. The highly pure quantum dots were used in cellular uptake experiments and monitored using confocal microscopy. The results showed that the amine terminated silicon nanocrystals accumulated in lysosome but not in nuclei and could be used as bio-markers to monitor cancer cells over long timescales.     

The Influence of Surface Modification on the Epoxidation Selectivity and Mechanism of TiSBA15 and TaSBA15 Catalysts with Aqueous Hydrogen Peroxide

The thermolytic molecular precursor method was used to introduce site-isolated Ti(IV) and Ta(V) centers onto the surface of a mesoporous SBA15 support. The resulting surface SiOH, TiOH, and TaOH sites were modified with a series of (N,N-dimethylamino)trialkylsilanes, Me₂NSiMe₂R (where R = Me, ⁿ Bu, or ⁿ Oc). Compared to the unmodified catalysts, the surface-modified catalysts are more active in the epoxidation of cyclohexene with H₂O₂ and exhibit a markedly greater selectivity for cyclohexene oxide (up to 58% for Ti(IV) and greater than 95% for Ta(V)). In situ spectroscopies were used to probe this phenomenon, and it was determined that a siloxy-capped Ti(IV) or Ta(V) site is essential to achieve the high epoxide selectivity.