title: Facile fabrication of luminescent organic dots by thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt, and their use for cell staining and polyelectrolyte microcapsule labelling.
abstract: Luminescent organic dots (O-dots) were synthesized via a one-pot, solvent-free thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt. The influence of the ratio of the precursors and the duration of the process on the properties of the O-dots was established and a mechanism of their formation was hypothesized. The multicolour luminescence tunability and toxicity of synthesized O-dots were extensively studied. The possible applications of O-dots for alive/fixed cell staining and labelling of layer-by-layer polyelectrolyte microcapsules were evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 03680, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Nadezhda M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Zholobak
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Pushchino 142290, Russia.
authors.forename: Anton L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: Zabolotny Institute of Microbiology and Virology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv 03680, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Alexander B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Shcherbakov
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Pushchino 142290, Russia.
authors.forename: Nelly R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Popova
authors.affiliation: Palladin Institute of Biochemistry NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv 01601, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Mykhailo M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Guzyk
authors.affiliation: Bogatsky Physico-Chemical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa 65080, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Valeriy P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Antonovich
authors.affiliation: Bogatsky Physico-Chemical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa 65080, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Alla V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Yegorova
authors.affiliation: Bogatsky Physico-Chemical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa 65080, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Yuliya V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Scrypynets
authors.affiliation: Bogatsky Physico-Chemical Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Odessa 65080, Ukraine.
authors.forename: Inna I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Leonenko
authors.affiliation: Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander Ye
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Baranchikov
authors.affiliation: Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia; National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk 634050, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Ivanov
keywords: cell culture; citric acid; layer-by-layer (LbL)-microcapsules; luminescence; organic dots (O-dots); staining; toxicity