Bismuth nanocrystals were synthesized according to Son, et al
12 (link). Briefly, 3.6 grams (5 mmol) of
bismuth neodecanoate (Sigma-Aldrich St. Louis, MO, USA) was combined with 25 mL of
1-octadecene (Sigma-Aldrich St. Louis, MO, USA). The mixture was then heated to 120 °C under a N
2 atmosphere for 2 hours to remove water and dissolved oxygen. The mixture was then cooled to 80 °C with continuous stirring. 1.2 mL of
1-dodecanethiol (DDT) (Sigma-Aldrich St. Louis, MO, USA) was then added and the mixture was kept at 80 °C for 5 minutes. The addition of DDT caused the solution to change from colorless to yellow, indicating the formation of the bismuth dodecanethiolate complex. Next, 5 mL of
tri-octylphosphine (Alfa Aesar, Heysham, England) was injected, causing the yellow solution to turn black. The reaction was then cooled and maintained at its growing temperature of 60 °C for 30 minutes with continuous stirring. The nanocrystals formed were then precipitated with a 10:1 (v/v) mixture of acetone/tetrahydrofuran (THF), and retrieved by centrifugation (17,000
g × 10 minutes) and washed several times with 10:1 (v/v) acetone/THF.
Swy E.R., Schwartz-Duval A.S., Shuboni D.D., Latourette M.T., Mallet C.L., Parys M., Cormode D.P, & Shapiro E.M. (2014). Dual-modality, fluorescent, PLGA encapsulated bismuth nanoparticles for molecular and cellular fluorescence imaging and computed tomography. Nanoscale, 6(21), 13104-13112.