Towards high quality zinc oxide quantum dots for biomedical applications

Nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) is currently one of the most commonly used semiconductor metal oxide nanomaterials due to its unique catalytic and electro-optical characteristics. The inherent and distinctive physicochemical properties of ZnO nanostructures are dependent on a variety of factors that are determined by the applied synthetic procedure and the character of the resulting nanocrystal-ligand interface. Thus, the preparation of stable ZnO nanostructures, especially nanoparticles with sizes below 10 nm, i.e. quantum dots (QDs), with desired physicochemical properties still remains a huge challenge for chemists.