Characterization of photoluminescence activation of semiconductor nanoparticles for optical sensors

Application of nanomaterials to the design of optical sensors has generated great interest in sensing applications because of their unique optical properties in comparison with traditional organic dyes. Nevertheless, not many commercial sensor instruments based on semiconductor nanoparticles are yet available. One reason is the instability of the intensity of the luminescence emission observed in some of these kinds of sensors, particularly with nanoparticles of CdSe. There are several reasons to these variations. One of them is the initial activation of the nanoparticles. In order to improve the stability of these sensors, a study about the photo-activation of two types of semiconductor nanoparticles, core-shell and only core, is presented in this manuscript.