Facile approach to synthesize highly fluorescent multicolor emissive carbon dots via surface functionalization for cellular imaging

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science Vol. 513; pp. 505 - 514
• Main Authors: Kundu, Aniruddha, Lee, Jungpyo, Park, Byeongho, Ray, Chaiti, Sankar, K. Vijaya, Kim, Wook Sung, Lee, Soo Hyun, Cho, Il-Joo, Jun, Seong Chan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Carbon dots; Cell imaging; Fluorescence; Multicolor emission; Surface functionalization; Surface functionalization; Fluorescence; Multicolor emission; Carbon dots; Cell imaging
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.10.095

[Display omitted] Luminescent nanomaterials are encouraging scaffolds for diverse applications such as chemical sensors and biosensors, imaging, drug delivery, diagnostics, catalysis, energy, photonics, medicine, and so on. Carbon dots (CDs) are a new class of luminescent carbonaceous nanomaterial that have appeared recently and reaped tremendous scientific interest. Herein, we have exploited a simple approach to prepare tuneable and highly fluorescent CDs via surface functionalization. The successful synthesis of CDs is manifested from several investigations like high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The CDs exhibit excellent water solubility and with increasing nitrogen content fluorescence quantum yield increases whereas cell toxicity decreases. The CD synthesized at high temperature (180 °C) shows very high quantum yield (more than 56%). The tuneable optical properties of CDs are systematically studied using UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The cell viability evaluation and in vitro imaging study reveals that the synthesized CDs can be employed as a potential fluorescent probe for bio-imaging without further modification.