Facile preparation and cellular imaging of photoluminescent carbogenic nanoparticles derived from defoliations

Abstract

1 Introduction In the past two decades,photoluminescent semiconductor quantum dots(QDs) have received intensive attention for a variety of promising properties and applications[1,2],especially for their potential application in cellular imaging[3-5].QDs with high quantum yield have been prepared based on cadmium(zinc) selenide(sulfide) and related core-shell composites[6-8].However,the release of Cd2+,S2-and Se2-ions inevitably causes serious health and environmental concerns.Therefore,many efforts have been devoted to developing benign alternatives with enhanced photoluminescence,such as silicon nanoparticles and nanowires[9,10].