Black Carbon Dots (BC-Dots)
Black Carbon Dots
(BC-Dots)
Black carbon dots (BC-Dots) are subspecies of nanoparticles derived from regular carbon ash using a top-down acid oxidative methodology. BC-Dots are ultra-small, spherical nanoparticles that inherit excitation dependent photoluminescence (with an emission max at 550 nm when excited at 450 nm), good water dispersibility, and excellent optical stability.
Our extensive purification process and quality control provide with high quality and reproducible batches of BC-Dots. In addition, BC-Dots are highly biocompatible, which has been shown in vitro using various healthy and cancer cell lines.
Imaging studies with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirms the spherical shape of the BC-Dots with an average diameter of 2.5 nm. Interestingly, the particle size remains less than 5 nm even after loading several drug molecules on the BC-Dots’ surface, which indicates minor cellular damage induced by BC-Dots in the cell-membrane permeation process in biological systems.
Analytical spectroscopic measurements revealed that the carboxylic groups (-COOH) are the only functional group on the BC-Dots surface. Hence, research studies successfully proved that BC-Dots’ surface could be decorated with chemotherapeutic agents, peptides, and proteins via a covalent amide linkage, introducing BC-Dots as a promising nano-drug carrier. As an example, BC-Dots are widely used in glioblastoma brain tumor studies as a nano-cargo in vitro. Significantly, BC-Dots have proven to deliver multiple drugs simultaneously, resulting in a synergistic anti-cancer effect.
Safety Information & Specifications
For the Material Safety Data Sheet for Black Carbon Dots, click here.
References
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- Z. Peng, E. H Miyanji, Y. Zhou, J. Pardo, S. D Hettiarachchi, S. Li, P. L Blackwelder, I. Skromne, R. M. Leblanc, Carbon dots: Promising biomaterials for bone-specific imaging and drug delivery, Nanoscale, 9 (2017) 17533-17543.
- S. D. Hettiarachchi, R. M. Graham, K. J. Mintz, Y. Zhou, S. Vanni, Z. Peng, R. M. Leblanc, Triple conjugated carbon dots as a nano-drug delivery model for glioblastoma brain tumors, Nanoscale, 11 (2019) 6192-6205.
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- P. Y. Liyanage, R. M. Graham, R. R Pandey, C. C Chusuei, K. J. Mintz, Y. Zhou, J. K. Harper, W. Wu, A. H. Wikramanayake, S. Vanni, R. M. Leblanc, Carbon nitride dots: A selective bioimaging nanomaterial, Bioconjugate Chem., 30 (2018) 111-123.
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- P. Y. Liyanage, Y. Zhou, A. O Al-Youbi, A. S. Bashammakh, M. S. El-Shahawi, S. Vanni, R. M. Graham, R. M. Leblanc, Pediatric glioblastoma target-specific efficient delivery of gemcitabine across the blood–brain barrier via carbon nitride dots, Nanoscale, 12 (2020) 7927-7938