ABSTRACT
Nanomaterials are increasingly important and are at the forefront of modern research. The unique physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials influence their different applications. The unique properties of the nanomaterials are due to the quantum confinement effects. Because of this quantum confinement effects, these nanoparticles possess novel electrical and optical properties. Optical properties of nanomaterials are the most important and encouraging properties for a variety of innovative applications. Of late, optical properties of nanomaterials are increasingly explored in biotechnology and medicine being widely used in therapeutics and diagnostics. Among the various inorganic nanoparticles semiconductor nanoparticles have profound interest because of their intriguing optical properties and can be more readily integrated into different applications. The most important and promising application of semiconductor nanomaterials is the design of versatile nanostructures such as super lattices and multi modal agents which offer new opportunities in the biomedical field. In this chapter, we discuss recent advances in the semiconductor nanoparticles and its optical properties. We also discuss the recent biological applications of semiconductor 198nanoparticles in biological imaging, fluorescence sensing and therapeutics such as drug delivery and photothermal therapy.
