Facile preparation of full-color emissive carbon dots and their applications in imaging of the adhesion of erythrocytes to endothelial cells.

Full-color emissive CDs (F-CDs) are synthesized by a green method, which avoids toxic reagents, harsh reaction conditions and multistep processes. The water-soluble, 6 ± 1 nm uniform-sized F-CDs exhibit tunable multicolor emission in gradient colors from blue to red. The emission wavelength and intensity of the fluorescence and the wavelength of the absorption peak can be tuned by controlling the concentration of the F-CD aqueous dispersions. The remarkable low cytotoxicity, good photostability and successful application in imaging of the adhesion of erythrocytes to endothelial cells demonstrate the great applicability of the F-CDs as multiplexed bioimaging reagents. The present research not only offers a facile, green, one-pot method for the preparation of F-CDs, but also presents a novel, experimentally convenient research mode for studying cellular functions and provides useful enlightenment for enlarging the application fields of CDs.