Synthesis of Yellow Fluorescence Carbon Dots for the Applications of Vitamin B Detection and Cell Imaging.

In this work, bright yellow fluorescent and multifunctional carbon dots (N-CDs) were prepared by hydrothermal method from O-phenylenediamine and 4-aminobenzoic acid. The fluorescence characterization showed that the N-CDs possessed good optical properties (QY = 32%) and excitation dependent multi-color emission. By exciting with 390 nm, the strong selective interaction of VB with N-CDs could result in a sharp decrease in the luminescence of N-CDs at 567 nm. An efficient fluorescence sensor in aqueous solution was constructed which could linearly respond VB in wide concentration ranges of 0-90 μM and 140-250 μM. The linear correlation coefficients of N-CDs and VB were 0.9950 and 0.9968, respectively, and the detection limit was 0.119 μM. N-CDs were performed for sensitive determination of VB in real samples. Moreover, the N-CDs were exploited to image cell. This N-CDs was a sensitive fluorescence probe to monitor VB and presented prospective potential in living cells imaging.