Preparation and Application of Red-Emitting Thermo-Sensitive Carbon Quantum Dots

Abstract

At present, there are few methods to detect cell temperature and most of them are blue light emitting. The red-emitting carbon quantum dots have the characteristics of high brightness, large Bohr radius, easy chemical modification and biological coupling, and high photothermal conversion efficiency. This paper introduces the synthesis and application of a new type of red-emitting thermo-sensitive carbon quantum dots. The quantum dot solution is brown when illuminated by white light, and red when excited by green light. The fluorescence intensity of the prepared quantum dots has a linear relation with temperature, and the linear coefficient is about 0.992, which can be used for non-destructive testing of cells. The carbon quantum dots synthesized in this study have performed temperature detection, fluorescence imaging and verification of the endocytosis of quantum dots on mouse myoblasts (C2C12). The results show that there is no damage to the cells and the temperature measurement results are accurate. The carbon quantum dots synthesized by this research method have good stability, biocompatibility, and are basically non-toxic to cells. It is of great significance for the development of nanoscale thermometer for non-destructive measurement of cells.