Photoluminescent Ti3 C2 MXene Quantum Dots for Multicolor Cellular Imaging

Qi Xue; Huijie Zhang; Minshen Zhu; Zengxia Pei; Hongfei Li; Zifeng Wang; Yang Huang; Yan Huang; Qihuang Deng; Jie Zhou; Shiyu Du; Qing Huang; Chunyi Zhi

doi:10.1002/adma.201604847

Photoluminescent Ti₃ C₂ MXene Quantum Dots for Multicolor Cellular Imaging

Adv Mater. 2017 Apr;29(15). doi: 10.1002/adma.201604847. Epub 2017 Feb 10.

Authors

Qi Xue¹, Huijie Zhang², Minshen Zhu¹, Zengxia Pei¹, Hongfei Li¹, Zifeng Wang¹, Yang Huang¹, Yan Huang¹, Qihuang Deng³, Jie Zhou³, Shiyu Du³, Qing Huang³, Chunyi Zhi^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
² The Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122, China.
³ Engineering Laboratory of Specialty Fibers and Nuclear Energy Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, China.
⁴ Shenzhen Research Institute, City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518057, China.

PMID: 28185336
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201604847

Abstract

The fabrication of photoluminescent Ti₃ C₂ MXene quantum dots (MQDs) by a facile hydrothermal method is reported, which may greatly extend the applications of MXene-based materials. Interestingly, the as-prepared MQDs show excitation-dependent photoluminescence spectra with quantum yields of up to ≈10% due to strong quantum confinement. The applications of MQDs as biocompatible multicolor cellular imaging probes and zinc ion sensors are demonstrated.

Keywords: MXenes; hydrothermal; photoluminescent; quantum dots; transition-metal carbides.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Quantum Dots*
Titanium

Substances

Carbon
Titanium