Facile synthesis of fluorescence carbon dots from sweet potato for Fe3+ sensing and cell imaging.

In this study, a facile synthesis of fluorescence carbon dots (CDs) from sweet potato was performed through hydrothermal treatment. The obtained CDs with quantum yield of 8.64% have good dispersibility due to the soluble functional groups on their surfaces. The characterization of CDs was carried out and their possible formation mechanism was also discussed. In addition, the cytotoxicity results showed that the CDs exhibit non toxicity within 100μg/mL. At this concentration, the CDs were applied in cell imaging, indicating that they are promising fluorescent probes for biological imaging. In addition, the fluorescence of CDs was quenched by Fe3+ with a linear concentration of 1 to 100μM, associated with the limit of detection of 0.32μM. Subsequently, the CDs were successfully applied for Fe3+ probing in living cells.