Institute of Chemical Biology and Clinical Application at the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterial and Medical Theranostic, College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, PR China.
Institute of Chemical Biology and Clinical Application at the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterial and Medical Theranostic, College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, PR China.
Anal Chim Acta. 2022 May 29;1209:338885. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2021.338885. Epub 2021 Jul 27.
Due to the favorable biocompatibility, photostability and fluorescence emissions, carbon dots (CDs) are being widely investigated as fluorescent probes. Current CD-based fluorescent probe designs depend largely on conventional fluorescence sensing mechanisms, for e.g. the inner filter effect, photoinduced electron transfer, and Förster resonance energy transfer. Although these mechanisms have been successful, it is still desirable to introduce new sensing mechanisms. In recent years, emerging mechanisms such as aggregation-induced emission, hydrogen-bond induced emission, and intramolecular charge transfer have been developed for CD-based probes. This review summarizes both conventional and emerging mechanisms, and discuss CDs in the context of chemosensing, biosensing, and bioimaging. We provide an outlook for several other mechanisms such as CN isomerization, the short-wavelength inner filter technique, excited-state intramolecular proton transfer, and twisted intramolecular charge transfer, which have been applied to organic fluorescent probes design but not as much in CD-based sensing systems. We envision that this review will provide insights that inspire further development of CD-based fluorescent probes as for biological applications.
由于具有良好的生物相容性、光稳定性和荧光发射特性，碳点（CDs）被广泛研究作为荧光探针。目前基于 CD 的荧光探针设计在很大程度上依赖于传统的荧光传感机制，例如内滤效应、光诱导电子转移和Förster 共振能量转移。尽管这些机制已经取得了成功，但引入新的传感机制仍然是可取的。近年来，新兴的机制，如聚集诱导发射、氢键诱导发射和分子内电荷转移，已经被开发用于基于 CD 的探针。本综述总结了传统和新兴的机制，并讨论了 CD 在化学传感、生物传感和生物成像中的应用。我们还展望了其他几种机制，如 CN 异构化、短波长内滤技术、激发态分子内质子转移和扭曲分子内电荷转移，这些机制已被应用于有机荧光探针设计，但在基于 CD 的传感系统中应用较少。我们设想，这篇综述将为进一步开发基于 CD 的荧光探针在生物应用方面提供启示。
