Issue 40, 2023, Issue in Progress

A novel method for synthesis of carbon dots and their applications in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glucose detections

Abstract

A simple and novel method is proposed for preparation of water-soluble fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots), which have potential to be applied in detecting reactive oxygen species (ROS). The C-dots with high fluorescence quantum yield were created by hydrothermal methods with lactose as the carbon source and tris(hydroxylmethyl)aminomethane (Tris) as the surface passivation reagent. The C-dots have some unique characteristics such as excellent biocompatibility with a broad pH working range of 5–11 and high fluorescence, which makes them especially useful in the bio-detection field. The optical properties, surface groups, and element components of the prepared C-dots have been systematically studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. This facile approach is efficient and environmentally friendly and allows large-scale production of the C-dots without any further post-treatment. The C-dots have been adopted as probes for fluorescence turn-off detection owing to their high sensitivity to the hydroxyl radical. The detection limit can reach ∼0.1 μM under optimized conditions when using hydrogen peroxide as the source for generating ROS. Moreover, when paired with glucose oxidase, these C-dots can track glucose concentrations in samples. This adaptability suggests their potential in detecting various metabolites, paving the way for practical uses in disease detection.

Graphical abstract: A novel method for synthesis of carbon dots and their applications in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glucose detections

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Mar 2023
Accepted
11 Sep 2023
First published
25 Sep 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2023,13, 28250-28261

A novel method for synthesis of carbon dots and their applications in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glucose detections

C. Chen, A. S. Yokokawa, K. Tseng, M. Wang, K. S. Ma and C. Wan, RSC Adv., 2023, 13, 28250 DOI: 10.1039/D3RA01795H

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