Nitrogen-doped carbon dots with excitationin-dependent long-wavelength emission produced by a room-temperature reaction

Nitrogen-doped carbon dots (CDs) have been produced by a new facile bottom-up'' synthesis, using the room-temperature reaction between acetonitrile and sodium-naphthalene. The obtained hydrophobic CDs are monodisperse (similar to 2.6 nm) and present an excitation-independent emission at similar to 588 nm with a small full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of similar to 52 nm. The CDs can be simply modified to be hydrosoluble and have been demonstrated to be an efficient red-emission agent for both in vivo and in vitro bioimaging.