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One-pot fabrication of dual-emission and single-emission biomass carbon dots for Cu2+ and tetracycline sensing and multicolor cellular imaging

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A Correction to this article was published on 18 September 2020

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Abstract

Dual-emission and single-emission carbon dots (DCDs and SCDs) have been simultaneously synthesized by one-pot solvothermal treatment of leek. Different graphitization and surface functionalization were responsible for their distinction in fluorescence characteristics. DCDs with an average size of 5.6 nm exhibited two emissions at 489 and 676 nm under 420-nm excitation. Complexation between DCDs’ surface porphyrins and Cu2+ led to quenching of the 676-nm emission, which resulted in the ratiometric determination of Cu2+ with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.085 μM. SCDs, containing additional sulfur element (0.50%) with an average size of 7.7 nm, presented a single emission at 440 nm under 365-nm excitation. The static quenching and inner filter effects between SCDs and tetracyclines (TCs) made SCDs a fluorescence nanoprobe for TCs’ determination with LODs of 0.26–0.48 μM. Applications of DCDs and SCDs for respective determination of Cu2+ and TCs in milk and pig liver samples were successfully demonstrated. Moreover, good photostability, low toxicity, and outstanding biocompatibility made DCDs and SCDs suitable for multicolor cellular imaging. Results indicate that natural products are excellent raw materials to controllably synthesize CDs with prominent physicochemical and fluorescence properties.

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  • 18 September 2020

    The authors would like to call the reader’s attention to the fact that unfortunately the wrong file was published as Fig. 2.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31660181) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (2018JJ1043).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Lihui Wu, Ruiqing Long, Te Li, Xia Tong, Shuyun Shi & Chaoying Tong

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410078, Hunan, China

    Cui Tang & Ying Guo

  3. Hunan Key Laboratory of Pharmacogenetics, Central South University, Changsha, 410078, Hunan, China

    Cui Tang & Ying Guo

  4. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong, China

    Haiyan Xiang

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  1. Lihui Wu
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  2. Ruiqing Long
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  4. Cui Tang
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  5. Xia Tong
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Correspondence to Ying Guo, Shuyun Shi or Haiyan Xiang.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests. All biological experiments were approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Central South University and performed in accordance with the ethical standard of the institution.

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Wu, L., Long, R., Li, T. et al. One-pot fabrication of dual-emission and single-emission biomass carbon dots for Cu2+ and tetracycline sensing and multicolor cellular imaging. Anal Bioanal Chem 412, 7481–7489 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02882-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02882-4

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