Bioconcentration of ionic cadmium and cadmium selenide quantum dots in zebrafish larvae.

The concern related to the use of nanomaterials is growing nowadays, especially the risk associated with their emission or exposure. One type of nanomaterials that has attracted much attention is quantum dots (QDs). QDs incorporation in consumer goods increases the probability of their entering in the environment and then into living organisms and human. In order to evaluate their potential to be bioconcentrated, zebrafish larvae have been exposed to SeCd/ZnS QDs, after performing an exhaustive characterization of these nanoparticles under the assay conditions. These data were compared with those obtained when zebrafish larvae were exposed to ionic cadmium. Finally, distribution of ionic Cd and QDs in exposed zebrafish larvae have been evaluated by Laser Ablation ICP-MS.

Entrapment of quantum dots in sol-gel matrices to develop sensing material based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer.

A simple and general procedure is described for the development of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) systems by the co-immobilization in a sol-gel matrix of photoluminescent quantum dots with a given dye "acceptor".