Preparation of Fluorescent Carbon Dots Using Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis and Its Application in Biolabeling

In this work, we synthesized fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) from citric acid and urea using an easy and rapid method so called “microwave-assisted pyrolysis”. The synthesized CDs under the difference in microwave heating time provided different colors of fluorescent light. Under UV illumination, it was observed that the maximum intensity of blue fluorescence was carried out from microwave heating process at 5 min. Characterization of CDs was analyzed by UV-Vis absorption, fluorescent spectra, fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The synthesized CDs were less than 5 nm in size and good in optical properties. Moreover, we investigated the use of CDs in biolabeling application by linking CDs with 8-hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) antibody using glutaraldehyde as molecular cross linker. This work can be applied to analysis and quantification of 8-OHdG, which is a biological marker indicating of oxidative stress in human body. Keywords : carbon dots (CDs) ; fluorescence ; microwave-assisted pyrolysis method ; antibody ;  8-OHdG