Fabrication of chiral fluorescence carbon dots-based nanosensor for selective sensing of L-cysteine, antibiotic drug in biological fluid, and bioimaging application
Haitham Saad Al-mashriqi, Yunyun Zhang, Jia Chen, Eskandar Qaed, Xin Li, Yali Yang, Hongdeng Qiu
Abstract
While chiral nanomaterials have seen significant advances, chiral carbon dots (CDs) remain relatively unexplored. Chiral fluorescent probes, known for their high sensitivity and selectivity, hold great potential in biosensing and bioimaging applications. In this research, we synthesized chiral carbon dots (b-CDs and y-CDs), with the y-CDs displaying strong fluorescence, excellent water solubility, chirality-dependent optical properties, and a quantum yield of 89.87 %. The y-CDs served as a versatile probe for the highly selective detection of L-cysteine using the y-CDs + Fe 3+ system, while y-CDs alone were employed to detect ofloxacin in serum, attaining remarkable detection limits of 1.7 mM and 0.10 μM, respectively. To assess the practical applicability of the system, we tested its performance in sensing ofloxacin in serum and urine, with recovery percentages ranging from 89.2 % to 101.3 % and 83.53 %–101.0 %, respectively, with all relative standard deviations (RSD) below 3.9 %, confirming the reliability and accuracy of the approach for biological sample analysis. Additionally, the y-CDs exhibited outstanding biocompatibility and were successfully employed for cellular imaging in SiHa cells, underscoring their potential in bioimaging applications. This study introduces a versatile chiral nano platform with promising uses in biomedical sensing, environmental monitoring, and diagnostic imaging.