Issue 40, 2015

Germanium-doped carbon dots as a new type of fluorescent probe for visualizing the dynamic invasions of mercury(ii) ions into cancer cells

Abstract

Carbon dots doped with germanium (GeCDs) were firstly prepared by a new simple 15 min carbonation synthesis route, exhibiting excitation-independent photoluminescence (PL), which could avoid autofluorescence in bioimaging applications. The as-prepared GeCDs have low cell toxicity, good biocompatibility, high intracellular delivery efficiency, stability and could be applied for detection of mercury(II) ions with excellent selectivity in complicated medium. It is to be noted that the as-prepared GeCDs used as a new type of probe for visualization of dynamic invasions of mercury(II) ions into Hep-2 cells display greatly different properties from most of the previously reported CDs which are regularly responsive to iron ions. All the results suggest that the GeCDs can be employed for visualization and monitoring of the significant physiological changes of living cells induced by Hg2+.

Graphical abstract: Germanium-doped carbon dots as a new type of fluorescent probe for visualizing the dynamic invasions of mercury(ii) ions into cancer cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Aug 2015
Accepted
29 Aug 2015
First published
10 Sep 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 16841-16847

Author version available

Germanium-doped carbon dots as a new type of fluorescent probe for visualizing the dynamic invasions of mercury(II) ions into cancer cells

Y. H. Yuan, R. S. Li, Q. Wang, Z. L. Wu, J. Wang, H. Liu and C. Z. Huang, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 16841 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR05326A

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