Preparation of biocompatible and antibacterial carbon quantum dots derived from resorcinol and formaldehyde spheres†
Abstract
Green or yellow emitting carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were prepared through the combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches from resorcinol and formaldehyde. The prepared CQDs showed characteristic fluorescence behavior depending on the compositional or structural features. Both CQD-S (green emitting) and CQD-P (yellow-emitting) were physiologically stable and biocompatible as cancer cell bioimaging agents. Especially, silver nanoparticle (Ag NP)-decorated CQDs revealed very good antibacterial activity for Gram-positive S. aureus and Gram-negative E. coli.