Study on the preparation of fluorescent carbon dots from Epipremnum aureum and its application in the ions detection and bioimaging

Epipremnum aureum is a very common ornamental plant in China. This plant grows very fast and have low medicinal value and low nutritional value. In this study, we synthesized a safe, environmental-friendly and stable blue fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CDs) using Epipremnum aureum as raw material. This material has good time property, temperature stability, salt stability. In the application research, the fluorescence of the CDs can be selectively quenched by mercury ion and recovered by iodine ion. In biological imaging research, the CDs is almost non-toxic to HeLa cells, and has very strong luminous efficiency. It is expected that the synthesized CDs can be used for reference in developing more applications of natural plants.