Abstract
Nitrogen (N-) and sulfur (S-) doped carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized in a single step in a few min, 1–4 min via microwave technique from five different types of amino acids viz. Arginine (A), Lysine (L), Histidine (H), Cysteine (C), and Methionine (M). These amino acid derived N- and/or S- doped CDs were found to be in spherical shapes with 5–20 nm particle size range determined by Transition Electron Microscope (TEM) images and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurements. Thermal degradation, functional groups, and surface potential of the CDs were determined by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), FT-IR spectroscopy, and zeta potential measurements, respectively. Although the zeta potential value of Cysteine derived CD (C-CD) was measured as −7.45±1.32 mV, the zeta potential values of A-CD, L-CD, H-CD, and M-CD particles were measured as +2.84±0.67, +2.61±1.0, +4.10±1.50 and+2.20±0.60 mV, respectively. Amongst the CDs, C- CDs was found to possess the highest quantum yield, 89%. Moreover, the blood compatibility test of CDs, determined with hemolysis and blood clotting tests was shown that CDs at 0.25 mg/mL concentration, CDs has less than 5% hemolysis ratio and higher than 50% blood clotting indexes. Furthermore, A-CD was modified with polyethyleneimine (PEI) and was found that the zeta potential values was increased to +34.41±4.17 mV (from +2.84±0.67 mV) inducing antimicrobial capability to these materials. Minimum Inhibition Concentration (MIC) of A-CD dots was found as 2.5 mg/mL whereas the PEI modified A-CDs, A-CD-PEI was found as 1 mg/mL against Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 (gram -) and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 (gram +) bacteria strains signifying the tunability of CDs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yuan F, Li S, Fan Z, Meng X, Fan L, Yang S (2016) Shining carbon dots: synthesis and biomedical and optoelectronic applications. Nano Today 11:565–586
Sun YP, Zhou B, Lin Y, Wang W, Fernando KAS, Pathak P, Meziani MJ, Harruff BA, Wang X, Wang H, Luo PG, Yang H, Kose ME, Chen B, Veca M, S-Y X (2006) Quantum-sized carbon dots for bright and colorful photoluminescence. J Am Chem Soc 128(24):7756–7757
Li H, Kang Z, Liu Y, Lee S-T (2012) Carbon nanodots: synthesis, properties and applications. J Mater Chem A 22:24230–24253
Wang D, Wang X, Guo Y, Liu W, Qin W (2014a) Luminescent properties of milk carbon dots and their Sulphur and nitrogen doped analogues. RSC Adv 4:51658–51665
Ponomarenko LA, Schedin F, Katsnelson MI, Yang R, Hill EW, Novoselov KS, Geim AK (2008) Chaotic Dirac billiard in graphene quantum dots. Science 320:356–358
Song Z, Quan F, Xu Y, Liu M, Cui L, Liu J (2016) Multifunctional N, S co-doped carbon quantum dots with pH- and thermo-dependent switchable fluorescent properties and highly selective detection of glutathione. Carbon 104:169–178
Li X, Lau SP, Tang L, Jic R, Yang P (2014) Sulphur doping: a facile approach to tune the electronic structure and optical properties of graphene quantum dots. Nanoscale 6:5323–5328
Xue M, Zhang L, Zou M, Lan C, Zhan Z, Zhao S (2015) Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon dots: a facile and green fluorescence probe for free chlorine. Sensors Actuators B Chem 219:50–56
Dong Y, Cai J, You X, Chi Y (2015) Sensing applications of luminescent carbon based dots. Analyst 140:7468–7486
Dong Y, Li G, Zhou N, Wang R, Chi Y, Chen G (2012) Graphene quantum dot as a green and facile sensor for free chlorine in drinking water. Anal Chem 84:8378–8382
Zhang L, Zhang Z-Y, Liang R-P, Li Y-H, Qiu J-D (2014a) Boron-doped graphene quantum dots for selective glucose sensing based on the “abnormal” aggregation-induced photoluminescence enhancement. Anal Chem 86:4423–4430
Ding C, Zhu A, Tian Y (2014) Functional surface engineering of C-dots for fluorescent biosensing and in vivo bioimaging. Acc Chem Res 47:20–30
Mehta VN, Jha S, Kailasa SK (2014) One-pot green synthesis of carbon dots by using Saccharum officinarum juice for fluorescent imaging of bacteria (Escherichia coli) and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cells. Mater Sci Eng C 38:20–27
Cheng L, Li Y, Zhai X, Xu B, Cao Z, Liu W (2014) Polycation-b-Polyzwitterion copolymer grafted luminescent carbon dots as a multifunctional platform for serum-resistant gene delivery and bioimaging. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 6:20487–20497
Fernando KAS, Sahu S, Liu Y, Lewis WK, Guliants EA, Jafariyan A, Wang P, Bunker CE, Sun YP (2015) Carbon quantum dots and applications in photocatalytic energy conversion. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 7:8363–8376
Liu Q, Zhang S, Dai L, Li LS (2012) Nitrogen-doped colloidal graphene quantum dots and their size dependent Electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. J Am Chem Soc 134:18932–18935
Sagbas S, Sahiner N (2019) Nanocarbon and its composites. In: Khan A, Jawaid M, Inamuddin DR, Asiri AM (eds) Chapter 22: Carbon dots: Preparation, Properties and Application, 1st edn. Elsevier, Woodhead
Zhang B-X, Gao H, Li X-L (2014b) Synthesis and optical properties of nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene quantum dots. New J Chem 38:4615–4621
Wang C, Sun D, Zhuo K, Zhang H, Wang J (2014b) Simple and green synthesis of nitrogen-, sulfur-, and phosphorus-co-doped carbon dots with tunable luminescence properties and sensing application. RSC Adv 4:54060–54065
Wang Z, Xu C, Lu Y, Chen X, Yuan H, Wei G, Ye G, Chen J (2016) Fluorescence sensor array based on amino acid derived carbon dots for pattern-based detection of toxic metal ions. Sensors Actuators B Chem 241:1324–1330
Zou S, Hou C, Fa H, Zhang l MY, Dong L, Li D, Huo D, Yang M (2017) An efficient fluorescent probe for fluazinam using N, S co-doped carbon dots from l-cysteine. Sensors Actuators B Chem 239:1033–1041
Philippidis A, Stefanakis D, Anglos D, Ghanotakis D (2013) Microwave heating of arginine yields highly fluorescent nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 15:1414
Zeng YW, Ma DK, Wang W, Chen JJ, Zhou L, Zheng YZ, Yub K, Huang SM (2015) N, S co-doped carbon dots with orange luminescence synthesized through polymerization and carbonization reaction of amino acids. Appl Surf Sci 342:136–143
Karfa P, Roy E, Patra S, Kumar S, Tarafdar A, Madhuri R, Sharma PK (2015) Amino acid derived highly luminescent, heteroatom-doped carbon dots for label-free detection of Cd2+/Fe3+, cell imaging and enhanced antibacterial activity. RSC Adv 5:58141–58153
Zhu H, Wang X, Li Y, Wang Z, Yang F, Yang X (2009) Microwave synthesis of fluorescent carbon nanoparticles with electrochemiluminescence properties. Chem Commun (34):5118–5120
Kudr J, Richtera L, Xhaxhiu K, Hynek D, Heger Z, Zitka O, Adam V (2017) Carbon dots based FRET for the detection of DNA damage. Biosens Bioelectron 92:133–139
Gao F, Ma S, Li J, Dai K, Xiao X, Zhao D, Gong W (2017) Rational design of high quality citric acid-derived carbon dots by selecting efficient chemical structure motifs. Carbon 112:131–141
Liu T, Li N, Dong JX, Zhang Y, Fan YZ, Lin SM, Luo HQ, Li NB (2017) A colorimetric and fluorometric dual-signal sensor for arginine detection by inhibiting the growth of gold nanoparticles/carbon quantum dots composite. Biosens Bioelectron 87:772–778
He G, Shu M, Yang Z, Ma Y, Huang D, Xu S, Wang Y, Hu N, Zhang Y, Xu L (2017) Microwave formation and photoluminescence mechanisms of multi-states nitrogen doped carbon dots. Appl Surf Sci 422:257–265
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the Scientific Research Commission of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU BAP, TSA-2018-2457).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sahiner, N., Suner, S.S., Sahiner, M. et al. Nitrogen and Sulfur Doped Carbon Dots from Amino Acids for Potential Biomedical Applications. J Fluoresc 29, 1191–1200 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-019-02431-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-019-02431-y