Hydrophilic alginate based multidentate biopolymers for surface modification of CdS quantum dots

We report that sodium alginate and its graft-copolymers with (2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate may attach to the surface of colloidal CdS–thioglycerol quantum dots (QDs) via a ligand exchange process and result in water-soluble and highly stable QD supramolecules. Optical properties of modified QDs in water showed that the emission intensity of QDs was still high after surface passivation.