Dually enriched Cu:CdS@ZnS QDs with both polyvinylpyrrolidone twisting and SiO2 loading for improved cell imagingElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details. See DOI: 10.1039/c4cc10127h

Through harvesting of the increased Stokes shift of CdS QDs via Cu-doping, the concentration-quenching or aggregation-quenching of CdS QDs was largely alleviated. A dually-enriched strategy with both polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) twisting and SiO 2 loading was developed for generating a highly luminescent doped-dots (d-dots) assembly for improved cell imaging. Alleviated aggregation-caused quenching via Cu doping in CdS QDs was harvested to develop a highly luminescent QD assembly for cell imaging.