Hydrothermal Conversion of One-Photon-Fluorescent Poly(4-vinylpyridine) into Two-Photon-Fluorescent Carbon Nanodots

• DOI: 10.1021/la404866s
• Publication Date: 2014-03-12T21:56:54Z
• Authors: Katherine Lawrence; Fengjie Xia; Rory L. Arrowsmith; Haobo Ge; Geoffrey W. Nelson; John S. Foord; Mónica Felipe-Sotelo; Nick D. M. Evans; John M. Mitchels; Stephen E. Flower; Stanley W. Botchway; Daniel Wolverson; Gazi N. Aliev; Tony D. James; Sofia I. Pascu; Frank Marken
• Keywords: Nanomaterials; Two-photon excitation microscopy; Hydrothermal Carbonization; Carbon fibers; HeLa; Nanodot; Hydrothermal Synthesis

A novel two-photon-fluorescent N,O-heteroatom-rich carbon nanomaterial has been synthesized and characterized. The new nanoparticles were produced by hydrothermal conversion from a one-photon-fluorescent poly(4-vinylpyridine) precursor (P4VP). carbonized particles (cP4VP dots) with nonuniform particle diameter (ranging sub-6 to 20 nm some aggregates up 200 nm) exhibit strong fluorescence properties in different solvents have also investigated for applications cell culture media. cP4VP dots retain their intrinsic cellular environment an average excited-state lifetime of 2.0 ± 0.9 ns the cell. enter HeLa cells do not cause significant damage outer membranes. They provide one-photon or two-photon fluorescent synthetic scaffolds imaging and/or drug delivery.