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Quick Microwave Assisted Synthesis and In Vitro Imaging Application of Oxygen Doped Fluorescent Carbon Dots

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Abstract

In this paper, a fast and simplest one-pot tactic was used to synthesis fluorescent oxygen doped carbon dots from Tween-20 (TTO-CDs) is reported. The TTO-CDs were microwavically synthesized by using Tween-20 as both the carbon precursor and the oxygen dopant as well. The surface morphology, crystalline and/or amorphous nature, composition and optical assets of synthesized TTO-CDs were studied by means of existing techniques. From the results, it was confirmed that the as-synthesized TTO-CDs are amorphous in nature, monodispersed, sphere-shaped and the typical particle size range is 5 ± 1.5 nm. The synthesized TTO-CDs emits strong blue fluorescence at 390 nm under excitation of 335 nm. Most interestingly, the excitation dependent emission property of synthesized TTO-CDs was exposed from fluorescence results. The synthesized TTO-CDs have quantum yield of about 14% against quinine sulfate as reference standard. The biotoxicity of synthesized TTO-CDs on HeLa cells was assessed through cytotoxicity assay. These results implied that the fluorescent TTO-CDs showed less biotoxicity, and further which was efficaciously applied as a multicolor staining and bioimaging probe for the confocal imaging of HeLa cells.

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Acknowledgments

Raja Angamuthu acknowledges Periyar University for University Research Fellowship (URF, Ref: PU/A&A-3/URF/2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Materials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, 636 011, India

    Raja Angamuthu & Raj Vairamuthu

  2. Energy and Functional Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, 636 011, India

    Ramesh Rajendran

  3. Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu, 636 011, India

    Raj Vairamuthu

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  1. Raja Angamuthu
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Correspondence to Raj Vairamuthu.

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Angamuthu, R., Rajendran, R. & Vairamuthu, R. Quick Microwave Assisted Synthesis and In Vitro Imaging Application of Oxygen Doped Fluorescent Carbon Dots. J Fluoresc 28, 959–966 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-018-2259-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-018-2259-7

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