title: One-step Synthesis of Highly Luminescent Nitrogen-doped Carbon Dots for Selective and Sensitive Detection of Mercury(II) Ions and Cellular Imaging.
abstract: In this paper, nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) with high quantum yield (QY) of 40.5% were prepared through a facile and straightforward hydrothermal route. The as-prepared N-CDs exhibited excellent photoluminescence properties, good water-solublity and photostability, negligible cytotoxicity and favourable biocompatibility. Such N-CDs were found to serve as an effective fluorescent sensor for selective and sensitive detection of Hg(2+) in a wide linear response concentration range of 0 - 8 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.087 μM and could be applied to the determination of Hg(2+) in environmental water samples. The corresponding mechanisms were discussed in detail. Moreover, another attractive finding was that the N-CDs showed satisfactory performance in bioimaging before and after the addition of Hg(2+) in human lung cancer PC14 cells. With excellent sensitivity, selectivity and biocompatibility, such cheap carbonmaterials are potentially suitable for monitoring of Hg(2+) in environmental applications and promising for biological applications.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Sichuan University.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Xueling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xingming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000737:chemistry; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D060326:Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic; D019343:Citric Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D019343:Citric Acid; D000641:Ammonia; D008628:Mercury; D009584:Nitrogen