title: Oxidized carbon nitrides: water-dispersible, atomically thin carbon nitride-based nanodots and their performances as bioimaging probes.
abstract: Three-dimensional (3D) carbon nitride (C3 N4 )-based materials show excellent performance in a wide range of applications because of their suitable band structures. To realize the great promise of two-dimensional (2D) allotropes of various 3D materials, it is highly important to develop routes for the production of 2D C3 N4 materials, which are one-atom thick, in order to understand their intrinsic properties and identify their possible applications. In this work, water-dispersible, atomically thin, and small carbon nitride nanodots were produced using the chemical oxidation of graphitic C3 N4 . Various analyses, including X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and combustion-based elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis, confirmed the production of 3D oxidized C3 N4 materials. The 2D C3 N4 nanodots were successfully exfoliated as individual single layers; their lateral dimension was several tens of nanometers. They showed strong photoluminescence in the visible region as well as excellent performances as cell-imaging probes in an in vitro study using confocal fluorescence microscopy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751 (Korea).
authors.forename: Junghoon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Ran Ji
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Seung Yeon
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yong Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dong Wook
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sungjin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009570:Nitriles / Q000737:chemistry*; D061848:Optical Imaging; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012995:Solubility; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D009570:Nitriles; D014867:Water; C011206:cyanogen
keywords: bioimaging; carbon nitride; nanodots; oxidation; photoluminescence