Preparation of Carbon Dots with High-Fluorescence Quantum Yield and Their Application in Dopamine Fluorescence Probe and Cellular Imaging

Carbon dots represent a kind of fluorescent nanomaterial and have broad application prospects in the field of biosensing and optoelectronics. Here, we explored carbon dots with a high-fluorescence quantum yield rate synthesized from L-cysteine and citric acid by the microwave-assisted method. The ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haitao Lin, Jun Huang, Liyun Ding
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2019-01-01
Series:Journal of Nanomaterials
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/5037243
Description
Summary:Carbon dots represent a kind of fluorescent nanomaterial and have broad application prospects in the field of biosensing and optoelectronics. Here, we explored carbon dots with a high-fluorescence quantum yield rate synthesized from L-cysteine and citric acid by the microwave-assisted method. The characteristics of the carbon dots were studied using a transmission electron microscope, an X-ray diffractometer, X-ray photoelectron spectra, a UV-Vis absorption spectrometer, a FTIR spectrometer, and a fluorescence spectrophotometer. The obtained carbon dots exhibited a high-fluorescence quantum yield (up to 85%), which is due to the combination of amidogens and sulfydryl with carbon dots, and hence bring the improved fluorescence property. We used carbon dots for in vitro imaging of CRL-5822 cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, which showed the low inhibitory rate (0.8%) of cells for 48 h with good biocompatibility demonstrated by the cell viability assay. The image of cells can be observed clearly under UV light. The Stern-Volmer equation was introduced to describe the quenching effect between the fluorescence intensity of carbon dots and the concentration of aqueous dopamine (DA).
ISSN:1687-4110
1687-4129