Facile fabrication of luminescent organic dots by thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt, and their use for cell staining and polyelectrolyte microcapsule labelling.

Luminescent organic dots (O-dots) were synthesized via a one-pot, solvent-free thermolysis of citric acid in urea melt. The influence of the ratio of the precursors and the duration of the process on the properties of the O-dots was established and a mechanism of their formation was hypothesized. The multicolour luminescence tunability and toxicity of synthesized O-dots were extensively studied.

Sensitive luminescent determination of DNA using the terbium(III)-difloxacin complex.

The interaction of the terbium-difloxacin complex (Tb-DFX) with DNA has been examined by using UV-vis absorption and luminescence spectroscopy. The Tb-DFX complex shows an up to 85-fold enhancement of luminescence intensity upon titration with DNA. The long decay times allow additional detection schemes like time-resolved measurements in microplate readers to enhance sensitivity by off-gating short-lived background luminescence.