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One-pot green hydrothermal synthesis of fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots for in vivo bioimaging

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Abstract

One-pot green synthesis of fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (CNDs) was developed by hydrothermal treatments of biocompatible polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and glycine. The fluorescent nitrogen-doped CNDs exhibited excellent water solubility, low cytotoxicity, and good salt stability for biological imaging. UV-vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy were applied to confirm the optical and structural characteristics of the CNDs. Fluorescence of the CNDs was tunable from 417 to 450 nm adjusted by different excitation energy. Fluorescent quantum yield of the CNDs (21.43 %) was significantly increased ~47.59 % in comparison to that of the CNDs (14.52 %) without nitrogen doping by glycine. In the in vivo imaging system (IVIS), fluorescence signal of the nitrogen-doped CNDs was obviously observed in the lungs at 12- and 24-h post-injection. Our work has shown the potential applications of the nitrogen-doped CNDs in fluorescence imaging in vivo.

Synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots and its application for vivo bioimaging

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the NTTU and “Ministry of Science and Technology,” Taiwan (MOST 103-2113-M-143 -002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ph. D. Program in Graduate Institute of Nanomedicine and Medical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, 11031, Taiwan

    Tsung-Rong Kuo

  2. Department of Applied Science, National Taitung University, Taitung, 95002, Taiwan

    Shuo-Yuan Sung, Chun-Wei Hsu, Tai-Chia Chiu & Cho-Chun Hu

  3. Department of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, 97004, Taiwan

    Chih-Jui Chang

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  1. Tsung-Rong Kuo
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  2. Shuo-Yuan Sung
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  3. Chun-Wei Hsu
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  4. Chih-Jui Chang
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  5. Tai-Chia Chiu
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  6. Cho-Chun Hu
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Correspondence to Cho-Chun Hu.

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Kuo, TR., Sung, SY., Hsu, CW. et al. One-pot green hydrothermal synthesis of fluorescent nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots for in vivo bioimaging. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 77–82 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9138-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9138-8

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