Issue 20, 2018

Tuning the optical properties of graphene quantum dots for biosensing and bioimaging

Abstract

Due to their low toxicity, excellent biocompatibility and attractive optical properties, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have attracted significant attention in the analytical and biological fields. The controllable intrinsic nature of graphene nano-sheets, e.g., size, layer, edge state or shape, offer the chance to fabricate GQDs with tunable photoluminescence behaviors. Carboxylic moieties on the surface and edges of GQDs can provide efficient reactive sites for interaction with various polymeric, organic, inorganic and biological species. This not only provides the chance to tune the optical properties of GQDs via facile chemical approaches such as surface modulation and doping, but also makes GQDs eco-friendly alternatives to replace the traditional fluorescent probes in biological assays. This review highlights new insights into the various strategies for tuning the optical features of GQDs, and their employment as attractive and powerful probes for bio-sensing/imaging. The challenges and future perspectives in the related fields are discussed.

Graphical abstract: Tuning the optical properties of graphene quantum dots for biosensing and bioimaging

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
12 Feb 2018
Accepted
11 Apr 2018
First published
13 Apr 2018

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2018,6, 3219-3234

Tuning the optical properties of graphene quantum dots for biosensing and bioimaging

X. Hai, J. Feng, X. Chen and J. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2018, 6, 3219 DOI: 10.1039/C8TB00428E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements