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Dual-emission carbon dots as biocompatible nanocarrier for in vitro/in vivo cell microenvironment ratiometric pH sensing in broad range

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Abstract

Herein, dual-emission carbon dots (CDs) were facilely prepared, CDs have a narrow size distribution, and the mean particle size is about 3.5 nm. CDs exhibit good water dispersibility and can emit intense green fluorescence under 365 nm UV light in an aqueous solution, which can be stable in different conditions. CDs used as ultrabright fluorescent probes for highly sensitive self-monitoring of pH on account of ratio of dual fluorescence intensities (I336 nm/I540 nm) against the pH variation from 2.5 to 12.0. The CDs exhibit cell permeable properties and a distinct pH-sensitive/excitation-independent PL emission feature, yielding significantly an optical probe for intracellular pH sensing and multicolor imaging of live HeLa and MDA-MB-231 cells with micron lateral resolution. Besides, MTT assay revealed the cell viability did not change upon treatment with CDs probe during 36 h.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Research Office of University of Kurdistan (Grant No. 4.1261) and Iranian Nanotechnology Initiative (Grant No. 142565).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, 66177-15175, Iran

    Somayeh Hamd-Ghadareh & Abdollah Salimi

  2. Research Center for Nanotechnology, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, 66177-15175, Iran

    Somayeh Hamd-Ghadareh & Abdollah Salimi

  3. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, 66177-13446, Iran

    Fardin Fathi & Farzad Soleimani

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  1. Somayeh Hamd-Ghadareh
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  2. Abdollah Salimi
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Correspondence to Abdollah Salimi.

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Hamd-Ghadareh, S., Salimi, A., Fathi, F. et al. Dual-emission carbon dots as biocompatible nanocarrier for in vitro/in vivo cell microenvironment ratiometric pH sensing in broad range. J IRAN CHEM SOC 16, 2081–2092 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13738-019-01678-3

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