Preparation of Monodisperse Hydrophilic Quantum Dots with Amphiphilic Polymers

Monodisperse hydrophilic quantum dots (QDs) are promising labeling materials for biomedical applications. However, the controllable preparation of monodisperse hydrophilic QDs with amphiphilic polymers remains a challenge. Herein, the molecular structures of amphiphilic polymers assembled on different-sized QDs are investigated. Both the experimental results and the molecular dynamics (MD) calculation suggest that the grafting ratio of amphiphilic polymers assembled on QDs increases as the size of QDs increases. Thus, the controllable preparation of different-sized monodisperse hydrophilic QDs can be achieved by simply varying the grafting ratio of amphiphilic molecules and applied in the simultaneous labeling of three tumor biomarkers.