Multi-applications of carbon dots and polydopamine-coated carbon dots for Fe(3+) detection, bioimaging, dopamine assay and photothermal therapy

Carbon dots (CDs) or CDs/polymer composites have been applied in numerous fields. Here, novel CDs were synthesized by carbonization of egg yolk, and characterized by TEM, FTIR, XPS and photoluminescence spectra. The CDs were found to be approximate sphere in shape with an average size of 4.46 ± 1.17 nm, and emitted bright blue photoluminescence under UV irradiation. The photoluminescence of CDs was found selectively quenched by Fe(3+) in a linear manner in the range of 0.05–0.45 mM, meaning they could be applied for Fe(3+) detection in solution. Moreover, the CDs could be uptaken by HepG2 cells to exhibit bright blue photoluminescence. The intensity could reflect the level of intracellular Fe(3+), indicating they could be further used for cell imaging and intracellular Fe(3+) monitoring. Next, dopamine was polymerized on the surface of CDs to obtain the polydopamine (PDA)-coated CDs (CDs@PDA). We found PDA coating could quench the photoluminescence of CDs via inner filter effect, and the degree of quenching was linearly related to the logarithm of DA concentration (Log C(DA)). Also, the selectivity experiment indicated the method had a high selectivity for DA over a number of possible interfering species. This indicated the CDs in combination with Tris buffer could be potentially applied as the assay kit of dopamine. At last, the CDs@PDA exhibited excellent photothermal conversion capability, and they could efficiently kill HepG2 cells under NIR laser irradiation. Overall, the CDs and CDs@PDA in this work exhibited many excellent advantages, and could be potentially used for multi-applications, such as Fe(3+) sensor in solution and cellular, cell imaging, dopamine assay kit, as well as photothermal agents for cancer therapy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s11671-023-03809-5.