Microwave-assisted synthesis of fluorescent carbon quantum dots from an A 2 /B 3 monomer set

Strongly fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were simply prepared by microwave-assisted synthesis using succinic acid and tris(2-aminoethyl)amine as an “A 2 + B 3 ” monomer set with a high mass yield of 17.3%. The prepared disc-like CQDs had average lateral dimensions ranging from 5 to 30 nm and a uniform thickness of 6.2 nm. The CQDs showed high solubility in protic polar solvents and demonstrated excitation-dependent emission with a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 49.9%. Because of the excellent cell viability of the CQDs, multicolor fluorescent imaging of cellular media (MDAMB and MDCK cells) was efficiently achieved.