Hill SA, Benito-Alifonso D, Davis SA, Morgan DJ, Berry M, Galan MC. Practical Three-Minute Synthesis of Acid-Coated Fluorescent Carbon Dots with Tuneable Core Structure.
Sci Rep 2018;
8:12234. [PMID:
30111806 PMCID:
PMC6093873 DOI:
10.1038/s41598-018-29674-2]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2018] [Accepted: 07/12/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
We report a one-pot, three-minute synthesis of carboxylic acid-decorated fluorescent carbon dots (COOH-FCDs) with tuneable core morphology dependent on the surface passivating agent. Mechanism investigations highlighted the presence of key pyrazine and polyhydroxyl aromatic motifs, which are formed from the degradation of glucosamine in the presence of a bifunctional linker bearing acid and amine groups. The novel COOH-FCDs are selective Fe3+ and hemin sensors. Furthermore, the FCDs are shown to be non-toxic, fluorescent bioimaging agents for cancer cells.
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