Photodynamic antimicrobial activity of benzimidazole substituted phthalocyanine when conjugated to Nitrogen Doped Graphene Quantum Dots against Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

In this study, peripherally benzimidazole unit substituted ZnPc (1) and its conjugation to nitrogen doped graphene quantum dot (NGQD) as potential phthalocyanine support via π-π stacking have been presented and fully characterized. The bottom-up solution-based synthesized NGQDs was conjugated non-covalently to zinc phthalocyanine to form NGQDs-Pc nanoconjugates. The photophysical and photochemical properties of both such as absorption, fluorescence, fluorescence life time, singlet oxygen quantum yields, triplet state quantum yields and exited state lifetimes were investigated in solutions. We observed a decrease in the fluorescence quantum yields with a corresponding increase in the triplet quantum yield and singlet oxygen quantum yield of the nanoconjugates in comparison to the phthalocyanine complex alone. Photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy activities (PACT) of ZnPc alone and its nanoconjugate were determined towards Staphylococcus aureus.