One-Pot, Rapid and Facile Synthesis of Thioglycolic Acid capped CdSe quantum dots: Tuning of Properties, Mechanistic Investigations by Cyclic Voltammetry and Cytotoxicity Studies

Thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped CdSe quantum dots (QD) have been synthesized in aqueous solution using facile, one-pot and soft chemical route at ambient condition. The excitonic absorption peak and band gap of the QD could be tuned from 435 nm to 472 nm and from 2.37 eV to 2.60 eV respectively. The morphology of these QD were dependent on the precursor's concentration during synthesis. These QD exhibited broad photoluminescence (PL) spectra with large Stokes shift. It was observed that in the synthesis of CdSe QD TGA played twin role of catalyzing and capping agent. Detailed reaction mechanism of synthesis studied using cyclic voltammetry confirms the role of thioglycolate anion in the synthesis of CdSe QD. Cytotoxicity effects of these QD were studied in both the normal and cancer cell, indicted that TGA capped CdSe QD are cytotoxic beyond 10 mu g/ml concentration and leads to cell proliferation of cancer cells.