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Green Synthesis of Multicolor Emissive Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Dots for Bioimaging of Human Cancer Cells

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Abstract

In this work, banana peel (BP) was utilized as a green carbon precursor to synthesize carbon dots (CDs) through the single-step hydrothermal-carbonization method. The structural and optical properties of the resulting BP-CDs were investigated by various techniques. The transmission electron microscopy measurement of BP-CDs displayed uniform morphology with a quasi-spherical shape of 5 nm in size. The optical studies of BP-CDs revealed that BP-CDs emit excitation-dependent fluorescence emission behaviors (redshift) without any capping or passivation agent. The maximum emission was observed at an excitation wavelength of 340 nm, showing an acceptable quantum yield of 19%. The abundant functional groups such as nitrogen- (amine and amide) and oxygen-containing (carbonyl and hydroxyl) groups on the surface of the BP-CDs were confirmed from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared studies. These functional groups in BP-CDs are responsible for the negative zeta potential. Since the BP-CDs showed excellent long-term stability (120 days) and photostability (120 min). The biocompatibility of BP-CDs was examined by cytotoxicity studies on cancer cells and utilized as a multi-colored nano-probe for imaging human cancer cells. The aforesaid properties demonstrate that the BP-CDs can be applied to imaging human cells without further modifications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean government MSIT (Grant No. 2021R1A2B5B02002436)

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  1. Raji Atchudan, Prakash Gangadaran, Suguna Perumal, Thomas Nesakumar Jebakumar Immanuel Edison and Ashok K. Sundramoorthy have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Raji Atchudan, Suguna Perumal & Yong Rok Lee

  2. BK21 FOUR KNU Convergence Educational Program of Biomedical Sciences for Creative Future Talents, Department of Biomedical Science, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41944, Republic of Korea

    Prakash Gangadaran

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, 41944, Republic of Korea

    Prakash Gangadaran, Ramya Lakshmi Rajendran & Byeong-Cheol Ahn

  4. Department of Chemistry, Sejong University, Seoul, 143‑747, Republic of Korea

    Suguna Perumal

  5. Department of Chemistry, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 602105, India

    Thomas Nesakumar Jebakumar Immanuel Edison

  6. Department of Prosthodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Poonamallee High Road, Velappanchavadi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600077, India

    Ashok K. Sundramoorthy

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  1. Raji Atchudan
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Atchudan, R., Gangadaran, P., Perumal, S. et al. Green Synthesis of Multicolor Emissive Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Dots for Bioimaging of Human Cancer Cells. J Clust Sci 34, 1583–1594 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10876-022-02337-z

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