A Novel Technique of Synthesis of Highly Fluorescent Carbon Nanoparticles from Broth Constituent and In-vivo Bioimaging of C. elegans

Abstract

Here we have demonstrated a novel single step technique of synthesis of highly fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from broth constituent and in vivo bioimaging of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) with the synthesized CNPs has been presented. The synthesized CNPs has been characterized by the UV-visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman studies. The sp (2) cluster size of the synthesized samples has been determined from the measured Raman spectra by fitting it with the theoretical skew Lorentzian (Breit-Wigner- Fano (BWF)) line shape. The synthesised materials are showing excitation wavelength dependent tunable photoluminescence (PL) emission characteristics with a high quantum yield (QY) of 3% at a very low concentration of CNPs. A remarkable increase in the intensity of PL emission from 16% to 39% in C. elegans has also been observed when the feeding concentration of CNPs to C. elegans is increased from 0.025% to 0.1% (w/v). The non-toxicity and water solubility of the synthesized material makes it ideal candidate for bioimaging.