Synthesis of highly stable red-emissive carbon polymer dots by modulated polymerization: from the mechanism to application in intracellular pH imaging

Great efforts have been made to develop facile and efficient methods to prepare carbonaceous nanostructures with long-wavelength emission. Herein, we report a low-temperature aqueous strategy to synthesize red-emissive carbon polymer dots (R-CPDs) through the regulation of oxidative polymerization o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale 2018-12, Vol.1 (47), p.22484-22492
Main Authors: Xia, Jie, Chen, Shuai, Zou, Guang-Yue, Yu, Yong-Liang, Wang, Jian-Hua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biocompatibility
Carbon
Chemical composition
Chemical synthesis
Crosslinking
Emissivity
Morphology
Nanomaterials
Organic chemistry
Phenylenediamine
Photoluminescence
Polymerization
Polymers
Variations
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Summary:Great efforts have been made to develop facile and efficient methods to prepare carbonaceous nanostructures with long-wavelength emission. Herein, we report a low-temperature aqueous strategy to synthesize red-emissive carbon polymer dots (R-CPDs) through the regulation of oxidative polymerization of p -phenylenediamine at 80 °C. The morphology, chemical composition and photophysical properties of the R-CPDs are characterized and analyzed in detail, thereby elucidating their photoluminescence origins from the surface state and crosslink enhanced emission effect. The resulting R-CPDs possess unique features including high pH-sensitivity within pH 4-6 and a wide-range tunable solvent-color effect ( λ em 528-600 nm). Moreover, the R-CPDs show high stability in physiological media with high salinity, and good resistance to photobleaching. In addition to their favorable biocompatibility, the R-CPDs are applied for monitoring the pH fluctuation in HeLa cells. This study not only provides a unique red emissive carbonaceous nanomaterial for cellular imaging and multicolor applications, but also presents a novel perspective for the construction of long-wavelength emission carbon-based nanomaterials by simple and controllable strategies. A novel red emissive carbonaceous nanostructure, i.e. , R-CPDs, is synthesized through a modulated polymerization method and applied for intracellular pH imaging.
ISSN:2040-3364
2040-3372
DOI:10.1039/c8nr08208a