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Photoluminescence of carbon dots and their applications in Hela cell imaging and Fe3+ ion detection

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Abstract

Carbon dots are a new and important form of zero-dimensional carbonaceous nanomaterials. In our present work, disperse water-soluble fluorescent carbon dots were prepared using coffee grounds as raw material by hydrothermal treatment. The as-prepared carbon dots exhibit an excitation-dependent and high photostable photoluminescence behavior which can be applied to Hela cell imaging. Notably, the fluorescence of the carbon dots can be quenched by Fe3+ ions, which can serve as a useful fluorescent probe for detecting Fe3+ ions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51272098 and 51551201).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Lin Ge, Hailong Yu, Haitao Ren, Bo Shi, Qian Guo, Wensheng Gao, Zhaoqing Li & Jiangong Li

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  1. Lin Ge
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  2. Hailong Yu
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Correspondence to Jiangong Li.

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Ge, L., Yu, H., Ren, H. et al. Photoluminescence of carbon dots and their applications in Hela cell imaging and Fe3+ ion detection. J Mater Sci 52, 9979–9989 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1178-3

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