Quantification of Quantum Dots in Solution using Surface Plasmon

Resonance and Analytical Ultracentrifugation

Chinonso Opara,

Hyewon Kwon,

Xiaoge Hu,

William Atkins, and

John Sumida

University of Washington, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Seattle, WA

University of Washington, Department of Bioengineering, Seattle, WA
Introduction
Results
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge funding from the Amgen Foundation as
part of the University of Washington 2012 Amgen Scholars Program
(CO) and also from the NIH National Institutes of General
Medical Sciences' Grant #12 R25 GM 058501-05A1 "UW IMSD
Program". This work was performed in the Analytical Biopharmacy Core,
funded through the Center for the Intracellular Delivery of Biologics by
the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund.
Transforming SPR Response Units to
Refractive Index via Correction Factor
Our method shows promise as a new way to measure
the concentration of quantum dots in solution.
We determined a dn/dc and mass extinction
coefficients for all wavelengths at which absorbance is
observed.
Mass extinction coefficients allow for simple UV-vis
concentration measurements.
AUC Synthetic Boundary J (r) Scales
with Concentration
Mass Extinction Coefficient from
Concentration and Absorbance
Knowing dn/dc, we use J(r) to measure concentration.
Figure 4. An AUC synthetic boundary measurement of the total fringe increment, J(r),
of a given solution of CdSe TOPO-PMAT quantum dots.
CdSe TOPO-PMAT Quantum Dot dn/dc
Figure 6. The concentration of a quantum dot solution makes it possible to take an
absorbance spectrum and determine the mass extinction coefficient for a continuous
set of wavelengths. This allows the use of UV-vis to measure concentration.
Figure 3. We are able to determine the refractive index increment by using the
density increment, measured by AUC, to relate density to concentration.
Quantum dots are nanoparticles with several applications, including
medical imaging and drug delivery. However, there are many limitations
to determining their concentration. It is our goal to create a new method
for measuring the concentration of quantum dots in solution.
We use surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to determine the refractive
index increment, dn/dc, of CdSe TOPO-PMAT quantum dots. The dn/dc
allows us to relate the total fringe increment, J(r), measured by analytical
ultracentrifugation (AUC) to the concentration of these quantum dots.
Figure 1. A conversion factor relating SPR response units to refractive index was
determined by comparing the concentration dependence of NaCl response units to
the NaCl literature refractive index increment. *CRC Handbook of Chemistry and
Physics, 92
nd
Edition, 2010-2011.
Figure 2. The correction factor was verified by using it to measure the dn/dc of
bovine serum albumin (BSA). Our experimental value of 0.186 agrees with the
**literature value.
Figure 5. Total fringe Increment scales with concentration
**Vollmer et al. Protein
detection by optical shift
of a resonant microcavity.
Applied Physics Letters.
Vol 28, Num 21 (2002).