Multicolor photoluminescent carbon dots à la carte for biomedical applications

Garcia-Millan, Teodoro, Ramos-Soriano, Javier, Ghirardello, Mattia, Liu, Xia, Santi, Cristina Manuela, Eloi, Jean-Charles, Pridmore, Natalie, Harniman, Robert L., Morgan, David J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6571-5731, Hughes, Stephen, Davis, Sean A., Oliver, Thomas A. A., Kurian, Kathreena M. and Galan, M. Carmen 2023. Multicolor photoluminescent carbon dots à la carte for biomedical applications. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 15 (38) , pp. 44711-44721. 10.1021/acsami.3c08200

PDF - Published Version Download (7MB)

Abstract

Dual-emission fluorescence probes that provide high sensitivity are key for biomedical diagnostic applications. Nontoxic carbon dots (CDs) are an emerging alternative to traditional fluorescent probes; however, robust and reproducible synthetic strategies are still needed to access materials with controlled emission profiles and improved fluorescence quantum yields (FQYs). Herein, we report a practical and general synthetic strategy to access dual-emission CDs with FQYs as high as 0.67 and green/blue, yellow/blue, or red/blue excitation-dependent emission profiles using common starting materials such as citric acid, cysteine, and co-dopants to bias the synthetic pathway. Structural and physicochemical analysis using nuclear magnetic resonance, absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in addition to transmission electron and atomic force microscopy (TEM and AFM) is used to elucidate the material’s composition which is responsible for the unique observed photoluminescence properties. Moreover, the utility of the probes is demonstrated in the clinical setting by the synthesis of green/blue emitting antibody-CD conjugates which are used for the immunohistochemical staining of human brain tissues of glioblastoma patients, showing detection under two different emission channels.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Chemistry Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Start Date: 2023-09-16
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
ISSN:	1944-8244
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	29 September 2023
Date of Acceptance:	1 September 2023
Last Modified:	30 Sep 2023 04:17
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/162832

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item