@article{Li2025, 
author = {Xue Li and Yanan Guo and Guoying Tan and Qingyi Liu and Nan Song and Yu Tang},
title = {Amino acid assisted aqueous synthesis of highly stable CsPbBr3 nanocrystals for cell imaging},
year = {2025},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {18},
number = {1},
pages = {94907067},
keywords = {phase transformation, cell imaging, lead halide perovskite nanocrystals, aqueous synthesis, L-glutamic acid},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/NR.2025.94907067},
doi = {10.26599/NR.2025.94907067},
abstract = {Lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit excellent optoelectronic performance and have drawn great interests in the fields of biological imaging and sensing. However, the poor stability of CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) in water is still a challenge to hinder their practical applications. In this work, a facile strategy has been developed for aqueous synthesis of CsPbX3 nanocrystals, in which L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) has been used to replace oleic acid in the synthetic process. Benefiting from the synergic effects of L-Glu and oleylamine (OAm), CsPbBr3 nanocrystals (L-Glu/OAm-CsPbBr3 NCs) with high water stability have been directly prepared under a mild condition at room temperature in water, facilitated by the process of crystal phase transformation from Cs4PbBr6 to CsPbBr3. L-Glu/OAm-CsPbBr3 NCs exhibit a high quantum yield of 85% and a narrow full width at half maximum of 16 nm, demonstrating their efficient luminescence in water. Typically, L-Glu on the surface have contributed greatly to an acidic environment and passivation of surface defects, improving the water stability and dispersibility of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals. Moreover, L-Glu/OAm-CsPbBr3 NCs exhibit great biocompatibility due to the presence of L-Glu, resulting in their good performance for HeLa cell imaging. Thus, we propose a facile and effective method to prepare CsPbBr3 nanocrystals with excellent water stability by using L-Glu and OAm as cooperated ligands and expand their application in cell imaging.}
}