Phenyl doped graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for sensing of copper ions in living cells
Zhiping Song1, Yuan-Teng Xu2, Liangqia Guo1
1Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, and College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China. lqguo@fzu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Copper (Cu) is a vital metal element for humans and animals. Monitoring and evaluating the concentration level of Cu2+ in a biological body is an effective way to prevent a variety of diseases. In this work, phenyl doped graphitic carbon nitride (PDCN) nanosheets with strong green fluorescence exhibited a sensitive and selective detection for Cu2+ with a linear range from 0.1-2.0 μmol L-1. Furthermore, fluorescent imaging was applied to semiquantitatively detect Cu2+ in HeLa cells using PDCN nanosheets as the probe, which can avoid the interference of background autofluorescence. This work provided a low-cost and biologically friendly fluorescent probe to monitor the concentration level of Cu2+ in living cells.
