Nitrogen and chlorine co-doped carbon dots as probe for sensing and imaging in biological samples

A facile one-step hydrothermal synthesis approach was proposed to prepare nitrogen and chlorine co-doped carbon dots (CDs) using l -ornithine hydrochloride as the sole precursor. The configuration and component of CDs were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. The obtained CDs (Orn-CDs) with a mean diameter of 2.1 nm were well monodispersed in aqueous solutions. The as-prepared CDs exhibited a bright blue fluorescence with a high yield of 60%, good photostability and low cytotoxicity. The emission of Orn-CDs could be selectively and effectively suppressed by Fe 3+ . Thus, a quantitative assay of Fe 3+ was realized by this nanoprobe with a detection limit of 95.6 nmol l −1 in the range of 0.3–50 µmol l −1 . Furthermore, ascorbic acid could recover the fluorescence of Orn-CDs suppressed by Fe 3+ , owing to the transformation of Fe 3+ to Fe 2+ by ascorbic acid. The limit of detection for ascorbic acid was 137 nmol l −1 in the range of 0.5–10 µmol l −1 . In addition, the established method was successfully applied for Fe 3+ and ascorbic acid sensing in human serum and urine specimens and for imaging of Fe 3+ in living cells. Orn-CD-based sensing platform showed its potential to be used for biomedicine-related study because it is cost-effective, easily scalable and can be used without additional functionalization and sample pre-treatment.