Yellow-emitting carbon dots for selective detecting 4-NP in aqueous media and living biological imaging

• Published in: Spectrochimica acta. Part A, Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy Molecular and biomolecular spectroscopy, 2019-09, Vol.220, p.117117, Article 117117
• Main Authors: Tian, Min, Liu, Yaoming, Wang, Yingte, Zhang, Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 4-nitrophenol detection; Biological imaging; Nitrogen-doped carbon dots; Yellow-fluorescent
• ISSN: 1386-1425
• DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.05.022

A facile and economical hydrothermal approach is reported for preparing fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) via using o-phenylenediamine and dicyandiamine. Herein, the bright-yellow-emissive N-CDs are uniformly dispersed spherical nanoparticles with favorable solubility, superior photoluminescence and photobleaching resistance. The fluorescence intensity of N-CDs is linearly quenched by 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) over a concentration range of 0.1–39 μM, corresponding to a detection limit (LOD) of 0.05 μM. Based on this phenomenon, a 4-NP-detection method is exploited and applied to real samples analysis. The synthesized N-CDs are highly biocompatible and capable of biological imaging. Therefore, they are excellent candidates for live biological imaging. A novel yellow-emitting nitrogen-doped carbon dots have been successfully prepared using o-phenylenediamine and dicyandiamine as reaction precursors via one step hydrothermal-assisted method. The fluorescence intensity of N-CDs is selectively quenched by 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) due to the formation of a stable non-fluorescent ground-state complex. Based on this phenomenon, a highly sensitive 4-NP-detection method is established and applied to actual samples analysis. In addition, this probe can better employ for multimodal biological imaging. [Display omitted] •A yellow-emissive fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) were synthesized for highly sensitive sensing 4-NP.•The detection limit was 0.05 μM.•The N-CDs exhibited excellent performances in the quantitative detection of 4-NP and were applied to actual samples analysis.•The N-CDs were successfully employed for multimodal biological imaging.