Synthesis and characterization of 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid-functionalized graphene quantum dots: biological activity, antioxidant activity and cell viability

Abstract

A facile, environmentally friendly one-step reaction for the preparation of luminescent N-doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) involving a hydrothermal reaction between citric acid and 2-aminoethylphosphonic acid has been designed. Graphene quantum dots have been characterized by UV-visible absorption, FTIR spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) techniques. Furthermore, the biological activity of the GQDs has been studied. UV-visible spectroscopy studies of the interactions between the GQDs and calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) showed that the compound interacts with CT-DNA via intercalative binding. DNA cleavage study showed that the GQDs cleaved DNA oxidatively. In addition, antioxidant activity of N-doped GQDs was measured using the DPPH method. As the concentration of the compound increased, the antioxidant activity also has increased. According to cell viability analyses results, the N-doped GQDs showed cell viability (70%) when the concentration reaches 228 μg/mL for A549, 200 μg/mL for MDA-MB-231 and 140 μg/mL for NIH-3T3 cell lines with 24 h incubation.