Highly fluorescent near-infrared emitting carbon dots derived from lemon juice and its bioimaging application

By Hui Ding, Xuan-Xuan Zhou, B. Qin, Zi-Yuan Zhou, Yunpeng Zhao. Journal of Luminescence, 2019

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Abstract Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) have gained intensive interests in the recent years due to their unique optical properties and widespread applications. However, the facile synthesis of highly efficient near-infrared emitting CDs (NIR-CDs) from renewable and low-cost natural resources is still a challenge to be addressed for their further applications, particularly in the bioimaging fields. Herein, NIR-CDs with a high quantum yield of 31% in water were synthesized by heating a formamide solution of pulp-free lemon juice. The as-obtained NIR-CDs possess an average size of 5.7 nm and a nitrogen content of approximately 20%, and exhibit an excitation-independent photoluminescence (PL) emission at 704 nm. Further studies suggest that the intense near-infrared emission of NIR-CDs is originated from their surface states, and that the energy gaps of these surface states are modulated by both the particle size and the nitrogen-doping amount. In addition, characterized with good photostability and low cytotoxicity, these NIR-CDs can be used as an excellent fluorescent probe for bioimaging both in vitro and in vivo.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9ea7711cb857fc32f4dbda34dbd1636187deda0f