Sulfur doped carbon nitride quantum dots with efficient fluorescent property and their application for bioimaging

Heteroatom doping can drastically alter electronic characteristics of carbon nitride quantum dots, thus resulting in unusual properties and related applications. Herein, we used sulfur as the doping element and investigated the influence of doping on the electronic distribution of carbon nitride and the corresponding fluorescent property. A simple synthetic strategy was applied to prepare sulfur-doped carbon nitride (S-g-C3N4) quantum dots through ultrasonic treatment of bulk S-g-C3N4. Characterization results demonstrated that the prepared S-g-C3N4 quantum dots with an average size of 2.0 nm were successfully prepared. Fluorescent properties indicated that S-g-C3N4 quantum dots have an emission peak at 460 nm and cover the emission spectra region up to 550 nm. Furthermore, the fluorescent intensity is greatly increased due to the sonication of bulk S-g-C3N4 into quantum dots. As a result, S-g-C3N4 quantum dots not only show a blue cell imaging, but have a bright green color. Therefore, S-g-C3N4 quantum dot is a promising candidate for bioimaging benefiting from the efficient fluorescent property, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity.