Qiao Yiqiang, Luo Dan, Yu Min, Zhang Ting, Cao Xuanping, Zhou Yanheng, Liu Yan
The First Affiliated Hospital of ZhengZhou University, Zhengzhou, 450000, P. R. China.
Laboratory of Biomimetic Nanomaterials, Department of Orthodontics, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, National Engineering Laboratory for Digital and Material Technology of, Stomatology, Beijing Key Laboratory of Digital Stomatology, Beijing, 100081, P. R. China.
Chemistry. 2018 Feb 9;24(9):2257-2263. doi: 10.1002/chem.201705310. Epub 2018 Jan 17.
A broad range of carbon sources have been used to fabricate varieties of carbon quantum dots (CQDs). However, the majority of these studies concern the influence of primary structures and chemical compositions of precursors on the CQDs; it is still unclear whether or not the superstructures of carbon sources have effects on the physiochemical properties of the synthetic CQDs. In this work, the concept of molecular assembly is first introduced into the design of a new carbon source. Compared with the tropocollagen molecules, the hierarchically assembled collagen scaffolds, as a new carbon source, immobilize functional groups of the precursors through hydrogen bonds, electrostatic attraction, and hydrophobic forces. Moreover, the accumulation of functional groups in collagen self-assembly further promotes the covalent bond formation in the obtained CQDs through a hydrothermal process. Both of these two chemical superiorities give rise to high quality CQDs with enhanced emission. The assembled collagen scaffold-based CQDs with heteroatom doping exhibit superior stability, and could be further applied as effective fluorescent probes for Fe detection and cellular cytosol imaging. These findings open a wealth of possibilities to explore more nanocarbons from precursors with assembled superstructures.
多种碳源已被用于制备各种碳量子点（CQD）。然而，这些研究大多关注前驱体的一级结构和化学成分对碳量子点的影响；碳源的超结构是否对合成碳量子点的物理化学性质有影响仍不清楚。在这项工作中，分子组装的概念首次被引入到一种新型碳源的设计中。与原胶原蛋白分子相比，分级组装的胶原蛋白支架作为一种新型碳源，通过氢键、静电引力和疏水作用固定前驱体的官能团。此外，胶原蛋白自组装中官能团的积累通过水热过程进一步促进了所得碳量子点中化学键的形成。这两个化学优势都产生了具有增强发射的高质量碳量子点。具有杂原子掺杂的基于组装胶原蛋白支架的碳量子点表现出优异的稳定性，并且可以进一步用作检测铁和细胞溶质成像的有效荧光探针。这些发现为从具有组装超结构的前驱体中探索更多纳米碳开辟了丰富的可能性。
