Effects of thermolysis and ferrocyanide quenching on quantum-confined CdS stabilized by polynucleotides

Conference · Fri Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:141010

Bigham, S R; Coffer, J L ^[1]

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1. Texas Christian Univ., Fort Worth, TX (United States)

Cadmium sulfide semiconductor clusters in the quantum confined size regime (Q-CdS) may be successfully stabilized by double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from calf thymus and E. Coli as well as by single-stranded ribonucleic acids (RNA) in the forms of Poly[A], Poly[C], Poly[G] and Poly [U]. These Q-CdS/ploynucleotide clusters exhibit broad trap emission characteristic of both cadmium and sulfur related defect sites at the semiconductor surface. Here the paper discusses differences in the nature of the stabilizer-cluster interaction between single-stranded and double-stranded polynucleotides, as probed by monitoring changes in photoluminescence after thermolysis or ferrocyanide addition. Thermolysis of Q-CdS/polynucleotide samples affects the interfacial interaction between cluster and stabilizer as demonstrated by a shift in the emission maximum and a change in quantum yield. Stern-Volmer analysis of photoluminescence quenching with ferrocyanide anions exhibits nonlinear behavior. Ferrocyanide anions quench the photoluminescene of Q-CdS/DNA approximately 38% more efficiently (in terms of integrated intensity) than Q-CdS/RNA after 0.17 mN addition. Such behavior suggests that single-stranded polynucleotides are better than double-stranded polynucleotides in terms of protecting the semiconductor surface from the highly negatively charged ferrocyanide anion.

• OSTI ID: 141010
• Report Number(s): CONF-930304--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
40 CHEMISTRY
42 ENGINEERING
CADMIUM SULFIDES
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
FERROCYANIDES
LYSIS
NUCLEOTIDES
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
QUANTUM ELECTRONICS
STABILIZATION