由于碳点(CD)的独特化学和生物医学特性,它们在许多研究领域越来越受到关注,例如,生物成像,荧光传感,和药物输送,等。最近,人们发现,在光激发下,CD也可以用作制备活性氧(ROS)的新型光敏剂,扩大了其在光动力疗法领域用于癌症治疗的应用。然而,CD的高成本和复杂的制造方法极大地限制了它们的应用。为了解决这个问题,自下而上的路线通常利用可持续和廉价的碳前体作为起始材料,employedN,N-二甲基甲酰胺(DMF)或乙醇作为环境友好溶剂。自下而上的方法是节能的,透析纯化过程相对简单。因此,碳点(CD)在一锅溶剂热法中使用1-氨基蒽醌作为前体轻松制造,以及它们作为体外抗肿瘤细胞光敏剂的应用,特别是光动力疗法(PDT)的建立。然后通过TEM表征了所制备的CD的光物理和纳米级尺寸特性,UV-可见光,荧光,和FT-IR光谱。合成的N掺杂CD可以很容易地溶解在水中,具有非常低的生物毒性,黄光发射(最大峰值在587nm)。更重要的是,PDT研究表明,获得的CD具有35%的高单线态氧产率,并且在635nm激光照射下对癌细胞表现出明显的光毒性。这些研究强调,N掺杂的CD可以很容易地从一个前体合成,并且是用于体内PDT的潜在新型治疗诊断剂。
Due to the unique chemical and biomedical properties of carbon dots (CDs), they have increasingly obtained the attention in many research fields, for example, bioimaging, fluorescence sensing, and drug delivery, etc. Recently, it was found that, under light excitation, CDs can also be exploited as a novel photosensitizer to prepare reactive oxygen species (ROS), which expand their applications in the field of photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment. Nevertheless, the high cost and complex fabrication approach of CDs significantly limit their applications. To address this issue, bottom-up routes usually utilize sustainable and inexpensive carbon precursor as starting materials, employed N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) or ethanol as an environmental-friendly solvent. Bottom-up approach was energy efficient, and the purification process was relatively simple by dialysis. Therefore, carbon dots (CDs) were facilely fabricated in a one-pot solvothermal process using 1-aminoanthraquinone as a precursor, and their application as photosensitizers for in vitro antitumor cells, especially photodynamic therapy (PDT) was established. Then the photophysical and nanoscale dimensions properties of the fabricated CDs were characterized via TEM, UV-visible, fluorescence, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The synthesized N-doped CDs can easily dissolve in water, possess very low biotoxicity, yellow-light emission (maximum peak at 587 nm). More importantly, PDT studies demonstrated that the obtained CDs possess a high singlet oxygen yield of 35%, and exhibit significant
phototoxicity to cancer cells upon 635 nm laser irradiation. These studies highlight that N-doped CDs can be facilely synthesized from only one precursor, and are a potentially novel theranostic agent for in vivo PDT.