posted on 2023-12-26, 19:16authored byAnna A. Vedernikova, Mikhail D. Miruschenko, Irina A. Arefina, Jinfeng Xie, He Huang, Aleksandra V. Koroleva, Evgeniy V. Zhizhin, Sergei A. Cherevkov, Alexander S. Timin, Kseniya A. Mitusova, Sergei A. Shipilovskikh, Elena V. Ushakova
Although chirality plays an important role in the natural
world,
it has also attracted much scientific attention in nanotechnology,
in particular, spintronics and bioapplications. Chiral carbon dots
(CDs) are promising nanoparticles for sensing and bioimaging since
they are biocompatible, ecofriendly, and free from toxic elements.
Herein, green and red emissive chiral CDs are fabricated via surface
modification treatment of achiral CDs at room temperature. After modification
with l-cysteine molecules, the treated CDs demonstrate an
intense chiral signal in the region of 200–300 nm with a dissymmetry
factor up to 2.3 × 10–4 and high photoluminescence
quantum yields of 19% and 15% for green and red emission bands, respectively.
These CDs preserve their chiral signal in different ion systems, such
as those with pH changes or in the presence of metal ions, along with
remarkably low cytotoxicity, making them potential candidates for
use as photoluminescent labels for biological objects.