Nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped graphene quantum dots: synthesis from adenosine triphosphate, optical properties, and cellular imaging

• Main Authors: Ananthanarayanan, Arundithi, Wang, Yue, Routh, Parimal, Sk, Mahasin Alam, Than, Aung, Lin, Ming, Zhang, Jie, Chen, Jie, Sun, Handong, Chen, Peng
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Adenosinetriphosphate; cytology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82654; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40299
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are emerging zero-dimensional materials promising a wide spectrum of applications, particularly, as superior fluorescent reporters for bio-imaging and optical sensing. Heteroatom doping can endow GQDs with new or improved photoluminescence properties. Here, we demonstrate a simple strategy for the synthesis of nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped GQDs from a single biomolecule precursor (adenosine triphosphate – ATP). Such ATP-GQDs exhibit high fluorescence quantum yield, strong two-photon upconversion, small molecular weight, high photostability, and good biocompatibility. Furthermore, transferrin conjugated ATP-GQDs have been used for imaging and real-time tracking of transferrin receptors in live cells.