Dual functional carbon nitride dots as electrochemical sensor and anticancer agent with chemotherapic and photodynamic effect

We report the facile single-step synthesis of carbon nitride dots (CND) from l-ascorbic acid and urea as precursors. The as-synthesized carbon dots were water-soluble, displaying green fluorescence in UV light with a high quantum yield. Electrochemical studies manifest carbon nitride dots' excellent stability, sensitivity, and selectivity for mercuric ions and drug tetracycline detection. The former and latter's detection limit is 0.055 µM and 0.18 µM, respectively. Furthermore, cytotoxic studies with the carbon nitride dots exposed its selective toxicity towards cancer cells, which steered anticancer studies on B16 murine melanoma cells. These non-functionalized carbon nitride dots could induce cell death by cell apoptosis derived from chemotherapic and photodynamic effects.