Photoinduced luminescence activation of hydrophilic ‘caged’ carbons dots

As part of our efforts to develop nanomaterials with tunable optical properties, we devised a synthetic protocol to photoactivate the luminescence of hydrophilic carbon dots by 'caging' the nanostructures with photocleavable 2-nitrobenzyl quenchers. Photoremovable 2-nitrobenzyl groups can be attached covalently to the surface of the carbon dots via amide-bond formation. We show that 2-nitrobenzyls efficiently quench the emission intensity of the resulting nanoconstructs and that the luminescence can be activated upon ultraviolet illumination in solution. In addition, the carbon dots can be internalized by living cells and used as bioimaging agents.