Highly Photoluminescent Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanodots and Their Protective Effects against Oxidative Stress on Cells.

Highly photoluminescent (PL) (quantum yield = 54%) nitrogen doped carbon nanodots (C-dots) have been prepared through one-step carbonizing citric acid and tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane and using oleic acid as solvent. The synthesized C-dots are monodisperse with narrow size distribution (average 1.7 nm).

Interactions between carbon nanodots with human serum albumin and γ-globulins: The effects on the transportation function.

Carbon nanodots (C-dots) have attracted great attention as a new class of luminescent nanomaterials due to their superior physical and chemical properties. In order to better understand the basic behavior of C-dots in biological systems, a series of photophysical measurements were applied to study the interactions of C-dots with human serum albumin (HSA) and γ-globulins. The fluorescence of proteins was quenched by the dynamic mechanism rather than the formation of a protein/C-dots complex.

Mechanistic studies on the reversible photophysical properties of carbon nanodots at different pH.

The pH-dependent photoluminescence (PL) behavior of carbon nanodots (C-dots) and its mechanism has been exhaustively studied in this work. The PL and UV-vis absorption spectra are reversible in the pH between 3 and 13. We speculate that two kinds of reactions (fast and slow) occurring at the surface of C-dots may contribute to this pH-dependent PL behavior.