Revealing the nature of optical activity in carbon dots produced from different chiral precursor molecules

Ananya Das; Evgeny V. Kundelev; Anna A. Vedernikova; Sergei A. Cherevkov; Denis V. Danilov; Aleksandra V. Koroleva; Evgeniy V. Zhizhin; Anton N. Tsypkin; Aleksandr P. Litvin; Alexander V. Baranov; Anatoly V. Fedorov; Elena V. Ushakova; Andrey L. Rogach

doi:10.1038/s41377-022-00778-9

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Revealing the nature of optical activity in carbon dots produced from different chiral precursor molecules

Articles

- Revealing the nature of optical activity in carbon dots produced from different chiral precursor molecules
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 11, Issue 5, Pages: 855-867(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Center of Information Optical Technologies, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, 197101, Russia
  2.Research Park, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia
  3.Laboratory of Femtosecond Optics and Femtotechnology, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, 197101, Russia
  4.Laboratory of Quantum Processes and Measurements, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, 197101, Russia
  5.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Centre for Functional Photonics (CFP), City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, 999077, China
  6.Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518057, China
- Author bio：
  
  Ananya Das (dasananyadas@gmail.com)
  Elena V. Ushakova (elena.ushakova@itmo.ru)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-022-00778-9
  CLC：
- Published：31 May 2022，
  
  Published Online：11 April 2022，
  
  Received：12 November 2021，
  
  Revised：23 March 2022，
  
  Accepted：27 March 2022
- Accepted：
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Das, A. et al. Revealing the nature of optical activity in carbon dots produced from different chiral precursor molecules. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 855-867 (2022).
DOI：

Das, A. et al. Revealing the nature of optical activity in carbon dots produced from different chiral precursor molecules. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 855-867 (2022). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-022-00778-9.

摘要

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) are light-emitting nanoparticles that show great promise for applications in biology and medicine due to the ease of fabrication

biocompatibility

and attractive optical properties. Optical chirality

on the other hand

is an intrinsic feature inherent in many objects in nature

and it can play an important role in the formation of artificial complexes based on CDs that are implemented for enantiomer recognition

site-specific bonding

etc. We employed a one-step hydrothermal synthesis to produce chiral CDs from the commonly used precursors citric acid and ethylenediamine together with a set of different chiral precursors

namely

L-isomers of cysteine

glutathione

phenylglycine

and tryptophan. The resulting CDs consisted of O

N-doped (and also S-doped

in some cases) carbonized cores with surfaces rich in amide and hydroxyl groups; they exhibited high photoluminescence quantum yields reaching 57%

chiral optical signals in the UV and visible spectral regions

and two-photon absorption. Chiral signals of CDs were rather complex and originated from a combination of the chiral precursors attached to the CD surface

hybridization of lower-energy levels of chiral chromophores formed within CDs

and intrinsic chirality of the CD cores. Using DFT analysis

we showed how incorporation of the chiral precursors at the optical centers induced a strong response in their circular dichroism spectra. The optical characteristics of these CDs

which can easily be dispersed in solvents of different polarities

remained stable during pH changes in the environment and after UV exposure for more than 400 min

which opens a wide range of bio-applications.

关键词

Keywords

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