One-pot development of water soluble copper nanoclusters with red emission and aggregation induced fluorescence enhancement

Abstract

One-pot synthesis of water-soluble Cu NCs using DHLA protection ligands by different reducing reagents including NaBH₄, N₂H₄ and THPC was developed. Furthermore, it was found that the as prepared Cu NCs using THPC as a reducing reagent describe fluorescence enhancement in the presence of Zn²⁺ and Al³⁺. It is proposed that the binding of Zn²⁺ and Al³⁺ to OH on the copper core of Cu NCs promotes the formation of CuNC–OH–Zn–OH–Cu NCs and CuNC–OH–Al–OH–Cu NCs aggregates respectively, which enables aggregation induced fluorescence enhancement. Additionally, it was found that the fluorescence enhancement were partly reversible by the introduction of an alkaline buffer solution and Zn²⁺.