Design of long-wavelength emission carbon dots for hypochlorous detection and cellular imaging

A facile strategy for the preparation of nitrogen and phosphorus co-doped carbon dots (N, P-CDs) with long-wavelength emission is attractively proposed in one-pot hydrothermal strategy. The resulting N, P-CDs hold exceptional optical features and display excitation wavelength-independent properties with the emission wavelength at 590 nm, which enable it with the satisfactory relative quantum yield (QY) of 15.6% in long-wavelength region. In addition, the proposed N, P-CDs demonstrates specific selectivity towards ClO − over other competitive reactive oxygen species and exhibits rapid fluorescence response time to ClO − . Moreover, the N, P-CDs exhibits low-cytotoxicity and excellent cell membrane permeability for recognizing ClO − in SMMC-7721 cells, which demonstrates their enormous potential in biological system.