Plasmonic Engineering of Singlet Oxygen Generation from Carbon Nanodots

Abstract

Carbon Dots are a naturally luminescent species that have been studied over the past 6+ years. These dots are easy to synthesize, small in diameter, are thought non-toxic, yielding a green fluorescence that can be significantly increased in the presence of near-field localized plasmon resonances, i.e. Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF)1 These properties make Carbon Dots a potentially versatile low-cost luminescent probe that can be used in the life-sciences such as in cancer detection, optoelectronics, and cellular imaging. In addition to their optical brightness properties, we have found that Carbon Dots can be synthesized to generate singlet oxygen when optically pumped. It is thought that the addition of “heavy atoms” increases the triplet yield and therefore singlet oxygen generation by spin-orbit coupling2, a classical approach for increasing the triplet yield of fluorescent/phosphorescent compounds2. Subsequently in this poster, we present a new particle for potentially both, sequential imaging and singlet oxygen generation. 1. Zhang, Y., Goncalves, H, Esteves, JCG and Geddes, CD (2011). Metal-Enhanced Photoluminescence from Carbon Dots. Chem. Commun., 47, 5313-5315. 2. Geddes, CD (2001). Optical halide sensing using fluorescence quenching: theory, simulations and applications a review. Institute of Physics. Meas. Sci. Technol., 12(9), R53-R88.