Fig. 6

Schematic representation of the ligand-exchange reaction, silica encapsulation and conjugation and detection of NV RNA. The TGA thiol ligand was capped on the surface of the QDs via a ligand-exchange reaction. The QDs were first silanized with an amino group and then further silanized with a carboxylate group. The carboxylate-silanized QDs were conjugated to MB probes via N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride/N-hydroxysuccinimide chemistry. The detection of viral NV RNA was accomplished via hybridization [58]