Facile, rapid and upscaled synthesis of green luminescent functional graphene quantum dots for bioimaging

Abstract

We report here the upscaled synthesis of green luminescent functionalized graphene quantum dots (FGQDs) by using an inexpensive and commonly occurring natural precursor viz. graphite powder. We observed in our sample that photoluminescence increases for excitation wavelengths of 300 nm to 350 nm and then decreases when excited at 375 to 425 nm for FGQDs at neutral pH. We found that the synthesized FGQDs do not show a drastic change in emission properties when kept under different pH conditions, which makes them a potential candidate for in vivo imaging, where the pH of the culture media plays a crucial role in the maintenance of the fluorescence. Water solubility, and excellent photostability along with low cytotoxicity of FGQDs are manifested as a remarkable bioimaging material.