title: One-pot synthesis of highly luminescent carbon quantum dots and their nontoxic ingestion by zebrafish for in vivo imaging.
abstract: Photoluminescent carbon and/or silicon-based nanodots have attracted ever increasing interest. Accordingly, a myriad of synthetic methodologies have been developed to fabricate them, which unfortunately, however, frequently involve relatively tedious steps, such as initial surface passivation and subsequent functionalization. Herein, we describe a green and sustainable synthetic strategy to combine these procedures into one step and to produce highly luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs), which can also be easily fabricated into flexible thin films with intense luminescence for future roll-to-roll manufacturing of optoelectronic devices. The as-synthesized CQDs exhibited enhanced cellular permeability and low or even noncytotoxicity for cellular applications, as corroborated by confocal fluorescence imaging of HeLa cells as well as cell viability measurements. Most strikingly, zebrafish were directly fed with CQDs for in vivo imaging, and mortality and morphologic analysis indicated ingestion of the CQDs posed no harm to the living organisms. Hence, the multifunctional CQDs potentially provide a rich pool of tools for optoelectronic and biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry (SKLAOC), Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000 (China); Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000 (China).
authors.forename: Yi-Fan
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kai-Bin
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hao-Li
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wen-Yuan
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Qiu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005453:Fluorescence; D005990:Glycerol / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D049449:Luminescence; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005990:Glycerol; D012825:Silicon
keywords: glycerol; green chemistry; in vivo imaging; quantum dots; zebrafish