Samuel Oluwatobi Oluwafemi¹; ¹University of Johannesburg

Herein, large-scale synthesis of water-soluble thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped and gelatin-stabilized AgInSe2/ZnSe (AISe/ZnSe) core/shell QDs in the absence of an inert atmosphere and its cell viability against different cancer cell lines is reported. The optical and structural characteristics of the as-synthesized QDs were investigated by UV-visible (vis) absorption, photoluminescence (PL) and Fourier-transmission infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies, dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) techniques. Growth of ZnSe shell on the core AISe resulted in the blue shifting of the emission maximum position with and increased PL intensity. The QDs are small and spherical in shape with an average particle diameter of 2.8 nm and 3.2 nm for AISe and AISe/ZnSe QDs respectively. The in vitro cell viability assay revealed that the as-synthesized AISe/ZnSe QDs are not toxic towards cancerous (HeLa -cervical cancer and A549-lung cancer) and normal (BHK21 –Kidney) cell lines.