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Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Compact Quantum Dots for Single-molecule Imaging
Published on: October 9, 2012
Pb(II) detection and versatile bio-imaging of green-emitting carbon dots with excellent stability and bright
Zishan Sun1, Yuping Zhou2, Weiying Zhou1
1Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. mpcc1@qq.com.
Abstract:
Green-emitting carbon dots (G-CDs) were synthesized via a simple and green hydrothermal method using betaine hydrochloride and sulfadiazine as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. Excellent luminescence stability with varying pH, salt concentrations, temperature is found with excitation-independent emission. G-CDs can be successfully used for the detection of Pb(ii) in the range of 0-200 μM. There was good linear relationship between the Pb(ii) concentration and G-CD fluorescence intensity with a correlation coefficient of 0.993, and the limit of detection (LOD) was 3.0174 μmol L-1. Due to its good biocompatibility, G-CDs can be successfully applied to zebrafish imaging as well as cell imaging, and the results show that G-CDs is more suitable for the zebrafish embryo imaging. Our results suggested that the obtained G-CDs can be used as multifunctional probes, highlighting their potential in different biological studies.
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