title: Electrochemical synthesis of carbon nanodots directly from alcohols.
abstract: Carbon nanodots (C-dots) show great potential as an important material for biochemical sensing, energy conversion, photocatalysis, and optoelectronics because of their water solubility, chemical inertness, low toxicity, and photo- and electronic properties. Numerous methods have been proposed for the preparation of C-dots. However, complex procedures and strong acid treatments are often required, and the as-prepared C-dots tend to be of low quality, and in particular, have a low efficiency for photoluminescence. Herein, a facile and general strategy involving the electrochemical carbonization of low-molecular-weight alcohols is proposed. As precursors, the alcohols transited into carbon-containing particles after electrochemical carbonization under basic conditions. The resultant C-dots exhibit excellent excitation- and size-dependent fluorescence without the need for complicated purification and passivation procedures. The sizes of the as-prepared C-dots can be adjusted by varying the applied potential. High-quality C-dots are prepared successfully from different small molecular alcohols, suggesting that this research provides a new, highly universal method for the preparation of fluorescent C-dots. In addition, luminescence microscopy of the C-dots is demonstrated in human cancer cells. The results indicate that the as-prepared C-dots have low toxicity and can be used in imaging applications.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine, Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 100084 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Qiujun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Naxiu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.forename: Haitao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Meiling
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mancai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Qingji
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Youyu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shouzhuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
keywords: carbon nanodots; cell imaging; electrochemical carbonization; fluorescence; low-molecular-weight alcohols; nanostructures