Development of a carbon quantum dots-based fluorescent Cu2+ probe suitable for living cell imaging

Abstract

An efficient strategy for selective fluorescent detection of Cu(2+) was developed based on the carbon quantum dots (CQDs) nanoconjugated with a specific organic molecule, amino TPEA, and further applied to intracellular sensing and imaging of Cu(2+) as a consequence of the fluorescence properties and the established low cytotoxicity of CQDs.

Hydrothermal synthesis of highly fluorescent carbon nanoparticles from sodium citrate and their use for the detection of mercury ions

“…The quantum yield was calculated to be about 68.22% using rhodamine 6G in ethanol as the standard (in ethanol, 95%) [27]. To the best of our knowledge, the quantum yield is much higher than that of most of the reported F-CNPs [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. The F-CNPs exhibited good photostability through the study of UV light illumination and the addition of oxidant (H 2 O 2 ).…”

“…Tian's group synthesized N-(2-aminoethyl)-N,N,N'-tris(pyridin-2-ylmethyl) ethane-1,2-diamine (TPEA) modified carbon dots to detect copper ions (Cu 2+ ) with good selectivity and sensitivity [19]. Liu et al proposed a lowcost, green method to synthesize fluorescent polymer nanodots from grass, and the fluorescent nanodots could detect Cu 2+ .…”

Carbon Based Dots and Their Luminescent Properties and Analytical Applications

“…CDs synthesized from electrochemical oxidation of graphite was capped with amino TPEA ([N-(2-aminoethyl)-N,N,N′-tris(pyridin-2-ylmethyl) ethane-1,2-diamine], AE-TPEA), and used for Cu 2+ detection. The developed sensing system showed broad linear response range (*10 −6 -10 −4 M) and low detection limit (*10 nM) [234]. Furthermore, the PL probe was successfully applied for intracellular sensing and imaging of Cu 2+ (Fig.…”

A novel far-red fluorescence bioimaging probe based on rhodamine 101 derivative for Cu2+ with high sensitivity and selectivity

“…Although numerous fluorescent probes for sensing of Cu 2+ have been developed recently [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] , there still has a great space to develop novel ones which can overcome these limitations, including only work in pure organic solvents [6] , ultraviolet excitation and shorter emission (below 550 nm) [8] , operation at non-physiological pH for fluorescence imaging, turn-off manner in emission spectra upon Cu 2+ binding due to the fluorescence-quenching nature of paramagnetic Cu 2+ . [7,8,10] Rhodamine spirolactam is non-fluorescent and colorless, whereas its ring-opening form gives rise to strong fluorescent emission and a pink color.…”

“…[7,8,10] Rhodamine spirolactam is non-fluorescent and colorless, whereas its ring-opening form gives rise to strong fluorescent emission and a pink color. By utilization of this unique ring-opening process, many metal ions (including Cu 2+ )-amplified fluorescent probes have been developed [12,13] .…”