Pollutant-Soot-Based Nontoxic Water-Soluble Onion-like Nanocarbons for Cell Imaging and Selective Sensing of Toxic Cr(VI)

Abstract

Presently, the technologies associated with using waste materials for the fabrication of newer useful materials have been greatly advanced. For the same purpose, a possible sustainable approach is described for the utilization of globally available dirty dangerous material, known as black carbon (BC), in the form of particulate diesel soot. From the black diesel particulate matter, onion-like nanocarbons (ONC) have been isolated followed by their surface functionalization to yield their amine-functionalized water-soluble version as ONC-NH2, which exhibits a high quantum yield value of ∼20%. Concerning the synthetic protocol, the potential associated with the presented report reveals that these ONC were used without being explicitly synthesized. These were just isolated from the diesel soot, which on amine functionalization have been converted to an efficient, biocompatible fluorescent probe for the imaging of cancer (HeLa) cells and selective sensing of toxic chromium Cr­(VI) in water. The detailed surface functionalization by the amine molecules in ONC-NH2, which make them readily soluble in aqueous media, is investigated using several spectroscopic techniques such as XPS, NMR, and FTIR.

N, S, and P-Co-doped Carbon Quantum Dots: Intrinsic Peroxidase Activity in a Wide pH Range and Its Antibacterial Applications

“…Figure b–f describes the high-resolution short scanned XPS spectra of C 1s, O 1s, N 1s, S 2p, and P 2p, respectively. Short scanned C 1s spectra as displayed in Figure b can be well deconvoluted into three components ∼283.19, ∼283.79, and ∼285.06 eV, corresponding to CC, C–C, and C–O/C–N/C–S bonding, respectively. , The short scan high-resolution XPS survey for O 1s region (Figure c) shows the presence of four major peaks at ∼529.76, ∼530.40, ∼531.44, and ∼531.81 eV, corresponding to the binding energy of O–N/P/S, C–O, ON/P/S, and CO, respectively . The short scan of N 1s (Figure d) shows two major peaks at ∼400.53 and ∼398.21 eV, which reveals the presence of pyrrolic and pyridinic nitrogen, further confirming the successful doping of nitrogen in NSP-CQDs as fused ring structures .…”

Yellow Fluorescent Carbon Dots for Selective Recognition of As3+ and Fe3+ Ions

“…The photoexcited electrons cannot come back to the lower energy highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the C-dots; rather complexation occurs with the vacant 4p/3d orbital in the proximity of the As 3+ /Fe 3+ ions. Now, the electronic transition is forbidden from the 4p/3d orbital to the HOMO level, resulting in significant fluorescence quenching. , …”

Fluorescent Carbon Nano-onion as Bioimaging Probe

“…(f) CNO isolated from pollutant diesel soot. Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2020 American Chemical Society.…”

“…Currently, water-soluble CNO clusters were prepared by simply sonicating the candle soot with an oxidizing agent and used as an imaging-based photothermal therapy application . Additionally, water-soluble CNO were isolated almost free of cost from the pollutant soot in gram scale . The importance of this sustainable approach is that CNO were just isolated from pollutant soot without using synthesis explicitly.…”