Near-infrared emissive carbon dots with 33.96% emission in aqueous solution for cellular sensing and light-emitting diodes

Boyang Wang; Jian Li; Zhiyong Tang; Bai Yang; Siyu Lu

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2019.07.021

Near-infrared emissive carbon dots with 33.96% emission in aqueous solution for cellular sensing and light-emitting diodes

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2019 Sep 15;64(17):1285-1292. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2019.07.021. Epub 2019 Jul 19.

Authors

Boyang Wang¹, Jian Li¹, Zhiyong Tang², Bai Yang³, Siyu Lu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
² Henan Institute of Advanced Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing 100190, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Henan Institute of Advanced Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 36659610
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2019.07.021

Abstract

Near-infrared emissive carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The as-prepared CDs exhibited a relatively high quantum yield (QY) of 33.96% in an aqueous solution, and the peak toward the near-infrared fluorescence reached 685 nm. The CDs exhibited pH-sensitive characteristics under strong acidic conditions. Even at pH = 0, the as-prepared CDs retained a high fluorescence intensity, which proved that they possessed good acid resistance. More importantly, the CDs were sensitive to the Fe³⁺ changes in living cells. In addition, they could also be used for white and red emissive LEDs. This discovery will expand the use of aqueous-phase high QY CDs in the field of living cell sensing and imaging.

Keywords: Aqueous; Carbon dots; Cellular sensing; Fluorescence; Red emission.