Soil microorganisms mediate many nutrient transformations that are central in terrestrial cycling of carbon and nitrogen. However, uptake of organic nutrients by microorganisms is difficult to study in natural systems. We assessed quantum dots (fluorescent nanoscale semiconductors) as a new tool to observe uptake and translocation of organic nitrogen by fungi and plants. We conjugated quantum d...

An electrochemical approach is introduced for synthesis of carbon dots (CDs) by exfoliating graphite rods at a voltage of 15 V in an electrolyte consisting of a mixture of water and two ionic liquids. It is found that the size of the CDs can be tuned by varying the fraction of water in the mixed electrolyte; CDs in sizes of 4.9, 4.1 and 3.1 nm are obtained if the electrolyte contains water in f...

Colloidal quantum dots offer broad tuning of semiconductor band structure via the quantum size effect. In this paper, we present a detailed investigation on the influence of the thickness of colloidal lead sulfide (PbS) nanocrystals (active layer) to the photovoltaic performance of colloidal quantum dot solar cells. The PbS nanocrystals (QDs) were synthesized in a non-coordinating solvent, 1-oc...

We report novel cucurbit[6]uril (Q[6])/carbon quantum dots (CQDs) prepared by solvothermal and nitrogen doped methods.

Semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots) are promising fluorescent markers, but it is very little known about interaction of quantum dots with biological molecules. In this study, interaction of CdTe quantum dots coated with thioglycolic acid (TGA) with bovine serum albumin was investigated. Steady state spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering m...

A noninteracting quantum-dot arrays side coupled to a quantum wire is studied. Transport through the quantum wire is investigated by using a noninteracting Anderson tunneling Hamiltonian. The conductance at zero temperature develops an oscillating band with resonances and antiresonances due to constructive and destructive interference in the ballistic channel, respectively. Moreover, we have fo...

colloidal quantum dots offer broad tuning of semiconductor band structure via the quantum size effect. in this paper, we present a detailed investigation on the influence of the thickness of colloidal lead sulfide (pbs) nanocrystals (active layer) to the photovoltaic performance of colloidal quantum dot solar cells. the pbs nanocrystals (qds) were synthesized in a non-coordinating solvent, 1-oc...

A facile, simple and low-cost approach for synthesizing highly fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from thermal treatment of sustainable hair has been developed. The resultant CQDs exhibited strong blue emission with a quantum yield of 10.75%, excellent photostability and high stability in high salt conditions. As the fluorescence of CQDs can be efficiently quenched by Hg2+, the CQDs can be ...

The quantum-mechanical orbitals in carbon nanotube quantum dots are doubly degenerate over a large number of states. We argue that this experimental observation indicates that electrons are reflected without mode mixing at the nanotube-metal contacts. Two electrons occupying a pair of degenerate orbitals “shell” are found to form a triplet state starting from zero magnetic field. Finally, we ob...

We investigate theoretically the nonequilibrium transport properties of carbon nanotube quantum dots. Owing to the two-dimensional band structure of graphene, a double orbital degeneracy plays the role of a pseudospin, which is entangled with the spin. Quantum fluctuations between these 4 degrees of freedom result in an SU(4) Kondo effect at low temperatures. This exotic Kondo effect manifests ...