Carbon nano dot decorated copper nanowires for SERS-Fluorescence dual-mode imaging/anti-microbial activity and
Bodhisatwa Das1, Prabhash Dadhich2, Pallabi Pal2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, NJ, USA; School of Medical Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India.
Abstract:
Copper nanoparticles are explored significantly for their antimicrobial activity, especially for antibiotic-resistant strain infections. However, copper has severe toxic responses and mostly it is due to its generation capability of reactive oxygen species (ROS) molecules while interacting with in vitro or in vivo systems. In the current study, wire shaped copper nanostructures were synthesized via microwave irradiation with single step doping of carbon nanodots (CDs). The synthesized material (CuCs) was characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, FTIR, TEM, FESEM, XRD, DLS, and XPS. The fluorescence spectroscopy, microscopy and Raman spectroscopy results suggested CuCs to work well as a bi-modal imaging nanoprobe (fluorescence/SERS). The cell culture studies prove significant cytocompatibility and ROS scavenging property of the samples with respect to control. Further, CuCs-gelatin nanocomposite thin films were prepared and implanted into rodent deep wound model. The histological study has showed enhanced angiogenesis in the subcutaneous region. The results were validated by immuno-histochemistry. The ROS scavenging and enhanced angiogenesis were validated via gene expression studies and a HIF-α induced enhanced angiogenesis mechanism was also proposed for better wound healing.
