A facile single hydrothermal method was developed to synthetize P,N codoped carbon dots (P,N/CDs), which show strong and stable fluorescence, good water solubility, low toxicity and good biocompatibility. Hence, a novel and efficient "off-on" P,N/CDs fluorescent probe was developed for the highly sensitive detection of lipoic acid (LA) for the first time. The fluorescence of the P,N/CDs was quenched by Cu2+ forming a P,N/CDs-Cu2+ complex, which acted as the "off" process, but Cu2+ could be removed by LA, due to stronger chelating between LA and Cu2+, forming a more stable complex, which recovered the fluorescence of the P,N/CDs, in order to achieve the "on" process. Under optimal conditions, the concentration of LA and the increased fluorescence intensity of the P,N/CDs-Cu2+ complex displayed a good linear relationship within the range of 0.05-28 μM, with a detection limit (S/N = 3) of 0.02 μM. The established "off-on" fluorescent probe was successfully applied to the analysis of LA in urine samples. The average recoveries were in the range of 98.3-101.5%, with a relative standard deviations of less than 3.1%. In addition, the P,N/CDs were also successfully applied to cellular dual-color imaging of live T24 cells. The results show that the P,N/CDs have great application potential in clinical diagnosis, bioassay and bioimaging. Graphical abstract.
Keywords: Cell imaging; Codoped carbon dots; Fluorescent probe; LA detection.