Photo and pH stable, highly-luminescent silicon nanospheres and their bioconjugates for immunofluorescent cell imaging.

We report a novel kind of oxidized silicon nanospheres (O-SiNSs), which simultaneously possess excellent aqueous dispersibility, high photoluminescent quantum yield (PLQY), ultra photostability, wide pH stability, and favorable biocompatibility. Significantly, the PLQY of the O-SiNSs is as high as 25%, and is stable under intense UV irradiation and in acidic-to-basic environments covering the pH range 2-12. To our best knowledge, it is the first example of water-dispersed silicon nanoparticles which possess both high PLQY and robust pH stability suitable for broad utility in bioapplications. Furthermore, the O-SiNSs are readily conjugated with antibody, and the resultant O-SiNSs/antibody bioconjugates are successfully applied in immunofluorescent cell imaging. The results show that the highly luminescent and stable O-SiNSs/antibody bioconjugates are promising fluorescent probes for wide-ranging bioapplications, such as long-term and real-time cellular labeling.