Synthesis of Inorganic Nanocrystals for Biological Fluorescence Imaging

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals emerged in the past decade as versatile labels for biological imaging. This chapter focuses, after a brief introduction describing their fundamental properties, on the synthesis of nanocrystals. Two main approaches are illustrated by means of examples from the recent literature: synthesis in aqueous medium and synthesis in organic solvents. In the former case, the obtained nanocrystals are already in the medium inherent to biological studies, while in the latter case, post-synthetic phase transfer is required. The advantages and drawbacks of both strategies are discussed and perspectives for future developments are given.