Biocompatible Carbon Dots Clusters with Tunable Sizes for Bioimaging Application
Abstract
Carbon dots (Cdots) have been widely applied in labeling cellular or subcellular targets with high resolution due to their small sizes and benign biocompatibility. However, their use for in vivo application suffered from the rapid renal clearance due to their tiny size (c.a. <∼6nm in diameter). To overcome the drawback, we herein report a sonication assisted method for the preparation of Cdots clusters with tunable sizes. Pluronic F127 was used as the carrier to form the clusters and the feeding ratio of the Cdots to F127 was varied in order to tune the sizes of clusters. The clusters were also successfully demonstrated in cell imaging applications with high brightness. Together with their low cytotoxicity, the clusters are potential for bioimaging applications. Hence, this work provides a convenient engineering strategy to prepare Cdots clusters with tunable sizes for bioimaging applications.
