title: Aqueous phase synthesis of highly luminescent, nitrogen-doped carbon dots and their application as bioimaging agents.
abstract: Carbon dots are promising scaffolds for multifunctional therapeutic systems because of their fluorescence property, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity. In this work, we prepared nitrogen-doped carbon dots through an aqueous phase strategy using folic acid as precursor. The carbon dots possess many attractive features including uniform dispersion with size about 9 nm, bright photoluminescence, high photoluminescence quantum yield of 23%, and low toxicity, making them excellent imaging probes for biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences & Bioengineering Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute , Gateway Park 4001, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609, United States.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Anjana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: H Susan
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon; D005492:Folic Acid