Issue 3, 2016

Green preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon dots derived from silkworm chrysalis for cell imaging

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) with a high quantum yield have been synthesized by a facile and green one-pot approach under microwaves with silkworm chrysalis (SC) as the natural carbon source, without using any other chemicals/reagents. The morphology and optical properties of the resultant CDs are characterized by TEM, XRD, FT-IR, XPS, UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL). The SC-CDs have an average size of 19 nm, and contain C, O and N with relative contents of ca. 71.32%, 22.96% and 5.72%, respectively. A significant emission at 420 nm at an excitation wavelength of 350 nm is recorded, resulting in a quantum yield of 46% with quinine sulfate (quantum yield 54%) as a reference. In addition to excellent solubility and stability in aqueous medium, the SC-CDs exhibit excitation-dependent photoluminescence with a large Stokes shift of 70 nm. It is further demonstrated that the SC-CDs exhibit a low cytotoxicity at a higher concentration of 15 mg mL−1 and they are able to display bright blue, green and red colors under an inverted fluorescence microscope during cell imaging experiments, showing their vast potential in bioimaging.

Graphical abstract: Green preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon dots derived from silkworm chrysalis for cell imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Sep 2015
Accepted
20 Nov 2015
First published
23 Nov 2015

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016,4, 387-393

Green preparation of nitrogen-doped carbon dots derived from silkworm chrysalis for cell imaging

J. Feng, W. Wang, X. Hai, Y. Yu and J. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, 4, 387 DOI: 10.1039/C5TB01999K

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