Issue 2, 2012

Incandescent porous carbon microspheres to light up cells: solution phenomena and cellular uptake

Abstract

Carbon based materials are attractive for biological applications because of their excellent biocompatibility profile. Porous carbons with high specific surface area are particularly interesting because it is possible in principle to leverage their properties to deliver high drug payloads. In this work, porous carbon microspheres with high specific surface area were prepared and studied in solution and in cells. Raman optical tweezer trapping of microspheres, excited at 532 nm, results in graphitization and incandescence in solvents that display poor heat conduction. Fluorescence confocal microscopy imaging was used to demonstrate the uptake of fluorescently labelled microspheres by cells and the ability to leverage their optical absorptivity in order to cause carbon graphitization and cell death.

Graphical abstract: Incandescent porous carbon microspheres to light up cells: solution phenomena and cellular uptake

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
31 Aug 2011
Accepted
26 Oct 2011
First published
09 Nov 2011

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 432-439

Incandescent porous carbon microspheres to light up cells: solution phenomena and cellular uptake

P. Duffy, L. M. Magno, R. B. Yadav, S. K. Roberts, A. D. Ward, S. W. Botchway, P. E. Colavita and S. J. Quinn, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 432 DOI: 10.1039/C1JM14303D

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