Green Synthesis of Nitrogen–Doped Carbon Dots from Fresh Tea Leaves for Selective Fe3+ Ions Detection and Cellular Imaging

Nanomaterials

Lin Li¹  Mingjian Chen²  Yuxin Yang²  Zhaoyang Zeng²  Can Guo²  Sicheng Zuo²  Wei Xiong²  Dan Wang²  Xu Wu²  Guili Ge² 

[1] College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Cancer Research Institute and School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China;

关键词: carbon dots;    tea leaves;    Fe³⁺;    sensing;    cellular imaging;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nano12060986

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In this research, we successfully developed a green, economical and effective one–step hydrothermal method for the synthesis of fluorescent nitrogen–doped carbon dots (N–CDs) by utilizing fresh tea leaves and urea as the carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The obtained N–CDs were characterized by TEM, XPS and FT–IR. We found that the N–CDs were near–spherical with an average size of about 2.32 nm, and contained abundant oxygen and nitrogen functional groups. The N–CDs exhibited bright blue fluorescence under ultraviolet illumination, with the maximum emission at 455 nm. Meanwhile, the as–prepared N–CDs could be selectively quenched by Fe³⁺ ions. The quenching of N–CDs is linearly correlated with the concentration of Fe³⁺ in the range of 0.1–400 μM with a low detection limit of 0.079 μM. Significantly, the N–CDs present excellent biocompatibility and high photostability. The results also depict that multicolor fluorescence is displayed under a fluorescence microscope and successfully applied for the detection of intracellular Fe³⁺. To sum up, the fluorescent N–CDs are expected to be a sensitive detection probe for Fe³⁺ in biological systems.

【 授权许可】

Unknown