title: Germanium-doped carbon dots as a new type of fluorescent probe for visualizing the dynamic invasions of mercury(II) ions into cancer cells.
abstract: Carbon dots doped with germanium (GeCDs) were firstly prepared by a new simple 15 min carbonation synthesis route, exhibiting excitation-independent photoluminescence (PL), which could avoid autofluorescence in bioimaging applications. The as-prepared GeCDs have low cell toxicity, good biocompatibility, high intracellular delivery efficiency, stability and could be applied for detection of mercury(II) ions with excellent selectivity in complicated medium. It is to be noted that the as-prepared GeCDs used as a new type of probe for visualization of dynamic invasions of mercury(II) ions into Hep-2 cells display greatly different properties from most of the previously reported CDs which are regularly responsive to iron ions. All the results suggest that the GeCDs can be employed for visualization and monitoring of the significant physiological changes of living cells induced by Hg(2+).
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory on Luminescence and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. chengzhi@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yun Huan
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Rong Sheng
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhu Lian
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Cheng Zhi
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D005857:Germanium / Q000737:chemistry*; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008628:Mercury / Q000378:metabolism*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005857:Germanium; D002244:Carbon; D008628:Mercury