Multifunctional carbon dots for glutathione detection and Golgi imaging

Glutathione (GSH) is present in almost every cell in the body and plays various integral roles in many biological processes. The Golgi apparatus is a eukaryotic organelle for the biosynthesis, intracellular distribution, and secretion of various macromolecules; however, the mechanism of GSH in the Golgi apparatus has not been fully elucidated. Here, specific and sensitive sulfur-nitrogen co-doped carbon dots (SNCDs) with orange-red fluorescence was synthesized for the detection of GSH in the Golgi apparatus. The SNCDs have a Stokes shift of 147 nm and excellent fluorescence stability, and they exhibited excellent selectivity and high sensitivity to GSH. The linear response of the SNCDs to GSH was in the range of 10–460 μM (LOD = 0.25 μΜ). More importantly, we used SNCDs with excellent optical properties and low cytotoxicity as probes, and successfully realized golgi imaging in HeLa cells and GSH detection at the same time.