Issue 6, 2023

All-quantum dot based Förster resonant energy transfer: key parameters for high-efficiency biosensing

Abstract

While colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are commonly used as fluorescent donors within biosensors based on Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET), they are hesitantly employed as acceptors. On the sole basis of Förster theory and the well-known behaviour of organic dyes, it is often argued that the QD absorption band over the UV-visible range is too wide. Discarding these preconceptions inherited from classical fluorophores, we experimentally examine the FRET process occurring between donor and acceptor CdTe QDs and provide a mathematical description of it. We evidence that the specific features of QDs unexpectedly lead to the enhancement of acceptors’ emission (up to +400%), and are thus suitable for the design of highly efficient all-QD based FRET sensors. Our model enables us to identify the critical parameters maximizing the contrast between positive and negative biosensing readouts: the concentrations of donors and acceptors, their spectral overlap, the densities of their excitonic states, their dissipative coupling with the medium and the statistics of QD–QD chemical pairing emerge as subtle and determinant parameters. We relate them quantitatively to the measured QD–QD FRET efficiency and discuss how they must be optimized for biosensing applications.

Graphical abstract: All-quantum dot based Förster resonant energy transfer: key parameters for high-efficiency biosensing

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Nov 2022
Accepted
19 Dec 2022
First published
20 Dec 2022

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 2614-2623

All-quantum dot based Förster resonant energy transfer: key parameters for high-efficiency biosensing

J. Hottechamps, T. Noblet, C. Méthivier, S. Boujday and L. Dreesen, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 2614 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR06161A

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