Biological toxicity changes of mercaptoacetic acid and mercaptopropionic acid upon coordination onto ZnS:Mn nanocrystal

Abstract

Mercaptoacetic acid (MAA) and mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals were synthesized and their physical characteristics were examined by XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The optical properties of the MPA capped ZnS:Mn nanocrystals dispersed in aqueous solution were also measured by UV/Vis and solution photoluminescence (PL) spectra, which showed a broad emission peak around 598 nm (orange light emissions) with calculated relative PL efficiency of 5.2%. Comparative toxicity evaluation of the uncoordinated ligands, MAA and MPA, with the corresponding ZnS:Mn nanocrystals revealed that the original ligands significantly suppressed the growth of wild type E. coli whereas the ligandcapped nanocrystals did not show significant toxic effects. The reduced cytotoxicity of the conjugated ZnS:Mn nanocrystals was also observed in NIH/3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results imply that potential toxicities of the capping ligands can be neutralized on ZnS:Mn surface.