Chlorine modulation fluorescent performance of seaweed-derived graphene quantum dots for long-wavelength excitation cell-imaging application

Abstract

Biological imaging is an essential means of disease diagnosis. However, semiconductor quantum dots that are used in bioimaging applications comprise toxic metal elements that are non-biodegradable, causing serious environmental problems. Herein, we developed a novel ecofriendly solvothermal method that uses ethanol as a solvent and doping with chlorine atoms to prepare highly fluorescent graphene quantum dots (GQDs) from seaweed. The GQDs doped with chlorine atoms exhibit high-intensity white fluorescence. Thus, their preliminary application in bioimaging has been confirmed. In addition, clear cell imaging could be performed at an excitation wavelength of 633 nm.