Sugar-Derived Carbon Dots with Variable Fluorescence Blinking Property as a Super-Resolution Imaging Probe

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C 2024-11, Vol.128 (45), p.19260-19269
• Main Authors: Mukherjee, Buddhadev, Pant, Neeraj, Dolai, Jayanta, Joshi, Prakash, Roy, Debiprasad, Maity, Anupam, Jana, Nikhil R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: C: Spectroscopy and Dynamics of Nano, Hybrid, and Low-Dimensional Materials
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c05736

Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) is a powerful technique for breaking the diffraction limit of a light microscope and visualizing the structural details on a nanometer length scale. However, SMLM requires a probe with fluorescence blinking property, and development of a photostable probe with a tunable blinking cycle, high photon count, and low duty cycle is critical. Herein, we report a series of carbon dots (CDs) with variable fluorescence blinking properties that are derived from carbonization of different sugar molecules. We found that the fluorescence blinking property of reducing-sugar-derived CDs differs from that of nonreducing-sugar-derived CDs due to different surface functionalities and structural defects. These CDs have been used for SMLM-based single-particle imaging with a localization precision of 12–28 nm and a resolution of 54–62 nm, and more defective CDs offer better localization precision. The glucose-derived CDs are used for SMLM-based imaging of lysozyme fibrils with 61 nm resolution. This result suggests that CDs with varied fluorescence blinking parameters can be derived for super-resolution imaging applications.