School of Chemical Engineering, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, PR China.
School of Chemical Engineering, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun 130012, PR China.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2017 Apr 15;492:1-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.12.057. Epub 2016 Dec 24.
Photoluminescent carbon dots (C-dots), as new members of the quantum sized carbon analogues have attracted significant attention due to their unique size, less toxicity, good compatibility and relatively easy surface modification. In this work, we report a simple, low-cost and one-step hydrothermal carbonization approach to synthesize the positively charged C-dots using PEI and FA. From the photoluminescence (PL) measurements, the as-prepared C-dots exhibit good stability and intense PL with the high quantum yield (QY) at Ca. 42%. Significantly, The as-prepared C-dots integrate the advantages of C-dots and PEI: the presence of C-dots can effectively decrease the cytotoxicity of PEI, the C-dots can be applied in biological system for selective imaging of folate receptor (FR)-positive cancerous cells from normal cells, while the cationic PEI with positive charges can make them link to plasmid DNA and efficiently transfect the therapeutic plasmid into cells. Therefore, the as-prepared with the facile synthesis method can be a promising photoluminescent probe for cancer diagnosis and gene therapy.
具有独特尺寸、低毒性、良好的兼容性和相对容易的表面修饰的光致发光碳点（C-dots）作为量子尺寸碳类似物的新成员，受到了极大的关注。在这项工作中，我们报告了一种简单、低成本的一步水热碳化方法，使用 PEI 和 FA 来合成带正电荷的 C-dots。从光致发光（PL）测量结果来看，所制备的 C-dots 表现出良好的稳定性和强 PL，其量子产率（QY）约为 42%。重要的是，所制备的 C-dots 结合了 C-dots 和 PEI 的优点：C-dots 的存在可以有效地降低 PEI 的细胞毒性，C-dots 可以应用于生物系统，从正常细胞中选择性地对叶酸受体（FR）阳性癌细胞进行成像，而带正电荷的阳离子型 PEI 可以使它们与质粒 DNA 结合，并有效地将治疗性质粒转染到细胞中。因此，所制备的具有简便合成方法的 C-dots 可以成为癌症诊断和基因治疗有前途的光致发光探针。
