Multi-applications of carbon dots and polydopamine-coated carbon dots for Fe3+ detection, bioimaging, dopamine assay and photothermal therapy

Jun Chen; Yuting Wang; Liang Wang; Mingjie Liu; Linlin Fang; Peng Chu; Chuanzhou Gao; Dapeng Chen; Dongze Ren; Jianbin Zhang

doi:10.1186/s11671-023-03809-5

Multi-applications of carbon dots and polydopamine-coated carbon dots for Fe³⁺ detection, bioimaging, dopamine assay and photothermal therapy

Discov Nano. 2023 Mar 2;18(1):30. doi: 10.1186/s11671-023-03809-5.

Authors

Jun Chen^#^{1

2}, Yuting Wang^#¹, Liang Wang^#², Mingjie Liu¹, Linlin Fang¹, Peng Chu¹, Chuanzhou Gao³, Dapeng Chen², Dongze Ren¹, Jianbin Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Collage of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, 9 West Sect Lvshun South Rd, Dalian, 116044, China.
² Laboratory Animal Center, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116044, China.
³ Institute of Cancer Stem Cell, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116044, China.
⁴ Collage of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, 9 West Sect Lvshun South Rd, Dalian, 116044, China. zhangjb@dmu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) or CDs/polymer composites have been applied in numerous fields. Here, novel CDs were synthesized by carbonization of egg yolk, and characterized by TEM, FTIR, XPS and photoluminescence spectra. The CDs were found to be approximate sphere in shape with an average size of 4.46 ± 1.17 nm, and emitted bright blue photoluminescence under UV irradiation. The photoluminescence of CDs was found selectively quenched by Fe³⁺ in a linear manner in the range of 0.05-0.45 mM, meaning they could be applied for Fe³⁺ detection in solution. Moreover, the CDs could be uptaken by HepG2 cells to exhibit bright blue photoluminescence. The intensity could reflect the level of intracellular Fe³⁺, indicating they could be further used for cell imaging and intracellular Fe³⁺ monitoring. Next, dopamine was polymerized on the surface of CDs to obtain the polydopamine (PDA)-coated CDs (CDs@PDA). We found PDA coating could quench the photoluminescence of CDs via inner filter effect, and the degree of quenching was linearly related to the logarithm of DA concentration (Log C_DA). Also, the selectivity experiment indicated the method had a high selectivity for DA over a number of possible interfering species. This indicated the CDs in combination with Tris buffer could be potentially applied as the assay kit of dopamine. At last, the CDs@PDA exhibited excellent photothermal conversion capability, and they could efficiently kill HepG2 cells under NIR laser irradiation. Overall, the CDs and CDs@PDA in this work exhibited many excellent advantages, and could be potentially used for multi-applications, such as Fe³⁺ sensor in solution and cellular, cell imaging, dopamine assay kit, as well as photothermal agents for cancer therapy.

Keywords: Bioimaging; Biomass; Carbon dots; Fe3+ detection; Photothermal therapy; Polydopamine.

Abstract

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