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Research Article

Red/orange dual-emissive carbon dots for pH sensing and cell imaging

Miaoran Zhang1, Rigu Su1, Jian Zhong2,3, Ling Fei4, Wei Cai1, Qingwen Guan1, Weijun Li1, Neng Li5, Yusheng Chen6, Lulu Cai2(), Quan Xu1()
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing,Beijing Key Laboratory of Biogas Upgrading Utilization, China University of Petroleum (Beijing),Beijing,102249,China;
Personalized Drug Therapy Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province,Department of Pharmacy, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,Chengdu,611731,China;
School of Pharmacy,North Sichuan Medical College,Nanchong,637000,China;
Chemical Engineering Department,University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette,LA 70504,USA;
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures,Wuhan University of Technology,Wuhan,430070,China;
Department of Chemistry,University of Akron,Akron,OH 44325,USA;
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Abstract

The dual-emissive N, S co-doped carbon dots (N, S-CDs) with a long emission wavelength were synthesized via solvothermal method. The N, S-CDs possess relatively high photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) (35.7%) towards near-infrared fluorescent peak up to 648 nm. With the advanced characterization techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), etc. It is found that the doped N, S elements play an important role in the formation of high QY CDs. The N, S-CDs exist distinct pH-sensitive feature with reversible fluorescence in a good linear relationship with pH values in the range of 1.0–13.0. What is more, N, S-CDs can be used as an ultrasensitive Ag+ probe sensor with the resolution up to 0.4 μM. This finding will expand the application of as prepared N, S-CDs in sensing and environmental fields.

Keywords

carbon cell imagingdual-emissivephotoluminescencepH-sensitiveAg+ probe

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Nano Research
Volume 12 Issue 4,
April 2019
Pages 815-821
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-019-2293-z
Cite this article:
Zhang M, Su R, Zhong J, et al. Red/orange dual-emissive carbon dots for pH sensing and cell imaging. Nano Research, 2019, 12(4): 815-821. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2293-z
Topics:
CarbonFluorescenceInfrared devices pH sensorsPhotoluminescenceProbesX-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
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