Rhodamine-Functionalized Graphene Quantum Dots for Detection of Fe³⁺ in Cancer Stem Cells

Abstract

A turn-on orange-red fluorescent nanosensor based on rhodamine B derivative-functionalized graphene quantum dots (RBD-GQDs) has been successfully synthesized for Fe(3+) detection with high sensitivity and selectivity. By connecting with GQDs, the water solubility, sensitivity, photostability, and biocompatibility of RBD are drastically improved. The most distinctive feature of the RBD-GQDs, which sets them apart from other previously reported fluorophores or GQDs, is that they with the detection limits as low as 0.02 μM are demonstrated as a Fe(3+) turn-on fluorescent nanosensor in cancer stem cells. Fe(3+) binding to such GQDs (RBD-GQDs-Fe(3+)) with orange-red fluorescence of 43% quantum yield were demonstrated to be the biomarkers for cancer stem cell imaging.

Bright Multicolor Bandgap Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots for Electroluminescent Light‐Emitting Diodes

“…Taken together, it is evident that under the given reaction conditions the MCBF‐CQDs are N doped, highly surface passivated, and have a high degree of crystallinity, yielding the strong PL emission . Taking a step further, we deduce that the precursor of DAN is crucial for generating the specific BF‐CQDs.…”

Facile synthesis of N-rich carbon quantum dots from porphyrins as efficient probes for bioimaging and biosensing in living cells

“…[10][11][12][13] To improve the fluorescent properties of CQDs, two kinds of modifications including surface functionalization and heteroatom doping were proposed. [14][15][16] In 2006, Sun et al first proved that surface passivation of CQDs with poly(ethylene) glycol diamine can remarkably enhance their fluorescence quantum yields. [17][18][19][20] More recently, heteroatom-doped CQDs have attracted much attention, as they can effectively modulate the intrinsic properties of CQDs, such as electronic characteristics and local surface chemical features, and sometimes may provide CQDs with additional properties.…”

A Practical Guide to Prepare and Synthetically Modify Graphene Quantum Dots

“…[40b] The relative abundance of specific chemical groups cannot easily be defined by IR as for example, functional groups like hydroxyls and carbonyls will display strongly in an IR spectrum, while other functional groups will be much weaker. IR can be useful to determine reaction success throughout a synthetic route, where new functional groups may be introduced or removed at different steps in the pathway . IR and XPS are typically used in tandem to characterize the chemical composition of GQDs, with the two techniques providing correlative and complementary information.…”