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Recent Advances in Graphene Quantum Dots as Bioimaging Probes

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Abstract

The emerging graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have gained tremendous attention for their enormous potential in biological applications, owing to their unique and tunable photoluminescence properties, exceptional physicochemical features, high biocompatibility, small sizes and low costs. This mini review aims to update the latest results in rapidly evolving bioimaging research and to provide critical insights into exciting future developments. We firstly provide a brief review of their synthesis and optical properties and then place emphasis on both in vitro and in vivo imaging applications.

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Fig. 1

Reprinted with permission from Ref. [71]. Copyright 2013 Royal Society of Chemistry

Fig. 2

Reprinted with permission from Ref. [138]. Copyright 2012 American Chemical Society

Fig. 3

Reprinted with permission from ref. [122]. Copyright 2015 Royal Society of Chemistry

Fig. 4

Reprinted with permission from ref. [124]. Copyright 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited

Fig. 5

Reprinted with permission from ref. [120]. Copyright 2015 Royal Society of Chemistry

Fig. 6

Reprinted with permission from ref. [161]. Copyright 2013 Wiley-VCH

Fig. 7

Reprinted with permission from Ref. [72]. Copyright 2013 American Chemical Society

Fig. 8

Reprinted with permission from Ref. [136]. Copyright 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC, DG RGPIN-2013-201697 and SPG STPGP-2016-493924), Canada Foundation for Innovation/Ontario Innovation Trust (CFI/OIT, 9040), Premier’s Research Excellence Award (PREA, 2003) and the University of Western Ontario(Western) for financial support to our research. ZD acknowledges the Faculty of Science and Western for a Distinguished Research Professorship (2014–2015) and Faculty Scholar Award (2015–2016). We are grateful to the Electronic Shop and ChemBio store for the quality service.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, The University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada

    Ruizhong Zhang & Zhifeng Ding

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Correspondence to Zhifeng Ding.

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Zhang, R., Ding, Z. Recent Advances in Graphene Quantum Dots as Bioimaging Probes. J. Anal. Test. 2, 45–60 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-018-0047-7

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