Optical Probing of Local pH and Temperature in Complex Fluids with Covalently Functionalized, Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes
Abstract
We show that local pH can be optically probed through defect photoluminescence from semiconducting carbon nanotubes covalently functionalized with aminoaryl groups. Switching between protonated and deprotonated forms of the amino moiety produces an energy shift in the defect state of the functionalized nanotube by as much as 33 meV in the near-infrared region. This unexpected observation enables a new optical pH sensor that features ultrabright near-infrared II (1.1–1.4 μm) photoluminescence, a sensitivity for pH changes as small as 0.2 pH units over a wide working window that covers the entire physiologic pH range, and potentially molecular resolution. Independent of pH, this nanoprobe can simultaneously act as a nanothermometer by monitoring temperature-modulated changes in photoluminescence intensity, which follows the van’t Hoff equation. This work opens new opportunities for quantitative probing of local pH and temperature changes in complex biological systems.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
OCC fluorescence is molecularly specific and extremely sensitive to the local chemical environment of the atomic defect sites.
“OCC fluorescence, on the other hand, is molecularly specific and extremely sensitive to the local chemical environment of the atomic defect sites32,41.”
From Detection of ovarian cancer via the spectral fingerprinting of quantum-defect-modified carbon nanotubes in serum by machine learning (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
OCCs efficiently harvest mobile excitons through the SWCNT antenna, producing distinct E11− fluorescence bands and introducing new biochemical sensitivities to SWCNTs.
“OCCs efficiently harvest mobile excitons through the SWCNT antenna, producing distinct fluorescence bands (E11−) at longer wavelengths from the E11 band. The E11− fluorescence introduces new biochemical sensitivities to SWCNTs determined by the chemical nature of the defect, making OCCs the molecular focal points for local environmental responses32.”
From Detection of ovarian cancer via the spectral fingerprinting of quantum-defect-modified carbon nanotubes in serum by machine learning (2022) · cites this paper as [32]
Cites
A survey of Hammett substituent constants and resonance and field parameters
Hansch, C. H., Leo, A. J., & TAFT, R. W. (1991) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/cr00002a004 · Cited by 8,676 · see citing works
Band Gap Fluorescence from Individual Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
O’Connell, M. J., Bachilo, S. M., Huffman, C., Moore, V. C., Strano, M. S., Hároz, E. H., Rialon, K. L., Boul, P. J., Noon, W. H., Kittrell, C., et al. (2002) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1072631 · Cited by 3,881 · see citing works
Second window for in vivo imaging
Smith, A. M., Mancini, M. C., & Nie, S. (2009) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.326 · Cited by 2,848 · see citing works
Kam, N. W. S., O’Connell, M. J., Wisdom, J. A., & Dai, H. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0502680102 · Cited by 2,300 · see citing works
Dysregulated pH: a perfect storm for cancer progression
Webb, B. A., Chimenti, M. S., Jacobson, M. P., & Barber, D. L. (2011) · Nature reviews. Cancer · doi:10.1038/nrc3110 · Cited by 2,246 · see citing works
Brites, C. D. S., Lima, P. P., Silva, N. J. O., Millán, Á., Amaral, V. S., Palacio, F., & Carlos, L. D. (2012) · Nanoscale · doi:10.1039/c2nr30663h · Cited by 1,606 · see citing works
A route to brightly fluorescent carbon nanotubes for near-infrared imaging in mice
Welsher, K., Liu, Z., Sherlock, S. P., Robinson, J. T., Chen, Z., Daranciang, D., & Dai, H. (2009) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.294 · Cited by 1,287 · see citing works
Large-scale single-chirality separation of single-wall carbon nanotubes by simple gel chromatography
Liu, H., Nishide, D., Tanaka, T., & Kataura, H. (2011) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms1313 · Cited by 908 · see citing works
Wencel, D., Abel, T., & McDonagh, C. M. (2013) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/ac4035168 · Cited by 544 · see citing works
Alterations of intracellular pH homeostasis in apoptosis: origins and roles
Lagadic‐Gossmann, D., Huc, L., & Lecureur, V. (2004) · Cell Death and Differentiation · doi:10.1038/sj.cdd.4401466 · Cited by 525 · see citing works
Stepwise Quenching of Exciton Fluorescence in Carbon Nanotubes by Single-Molecule Reactions
Cognet, L., Tsyboulski, D. A., Rocha, J.-D. R., Doyle, C. D., Tour, J. M., & Weisman, R. B. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1141316 · Cited by 506 · see citing works
Optical Detection of DNA Conformational Polymorphism on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Heller, D. A., Jeng, E. S., Yeung, T.-K., Martinez, B. M., Moll, A. E., Gastala, J. B., & Strano, M. S. (2006) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1120792 · Cited by 505 · see citing works
Brightening of carbon nanotube photoluminescence through the incorporation of sp3 defects
Piao, Y., Meany, B., Powell, L. R., Valley, N., Kwon, H., Schatz, G. C., & Wang, Y. (2013) · Nature Chemistry · doi:10.1038/nchem.1711 · Cited by 480 · see citing works
Self-citationQuantum Dot Nano Thermometers Reveal Heterogeneous Local Thermogenesis in Living Cells
Yang, J.-M., Yang, H., & Lin, L. (2011) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/nn201142f · Cited by 408 · see citing works
Oxygen Doping Modifies Near-Infrared Band Gaps in Fluorescent Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Ghosh, S., Bachilo, S. M., Simonette, R. A., Beckingham, K., & Weisman, R. B. (2010) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1196382 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
In vivo biosensing via tissue-localizable near-infrared-fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotubes
Iverson, N. M., Barone, P. W., Shandell, M. A., Trudel, L. J., Şen, S., Şen, F., Ivanov, V., Atolia, E., Farias, E., McNicholas, T. P., et al. (2013) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/nnano.2013.222 · Cited by 376 · see citing works
Reversible, Band-Gap-Selective Protonation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Solution
Strano, M. S., Huffman, C., Moore, V. C., et al. (2003) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry B · doi:10.1021/jp027664a · Cited by 355 · see citing works
Solution Redox Chemistry of Carbon Nanotubes
Zheng, M., & Diner, B. A. (2004) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja0457967 · Cited by 299 · see citing works
Nanoscale Metal–Organic Frameworks for Real-Time Intracellular pH Sensing in Live Cells
He, C., Lu, K., & Lin, W. (2014) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja507333c · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Ultra-pH-Sensitive Nanoprobe Library with Broad pH Tunability and Fluorescence Emissions
Ma, X., Wang, Y., Zhao, T., Li, Y., Su, L.-C., Wang, Z., Huang, G., Sumer, B. D., & Gao, J. (2014) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja5053158 · Cited by 293 · see citing works
Self-citationA Nanoparticle-Based Ratiometric and Self-Calibrated Fluorescent Thermometer for Single Living Cells
Takei, Y., Arai, S., Murata, A., Takabayashi, M., Oyama, K., Ishiwata, S., Takeoka, S., & Suzuki, M. (2013) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/nn405456e · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Advances in Fluorescence and Bioluminescence Imaging
Ozawa, T., Yoshimura, H., & Kim, S. B. (2012) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/ac3031724 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Thermometer design at the nanoscale
Lee, J., & Kotov, N. A. (2007) · Nano Today · doi:10.1016/s1748-0132(07)70019-1 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Chirality Enriched (12,1) and (11,3) Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Biological Imaging
Diao, S., Hong, G., Robinson, J. T., Jiao, L., Antaris, A. L., Wu, J. Z., Choi, C. L., & Dai, H. (2012) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja307966u · Cited by 187 · see citing works
Niyogi, S., Densmore, C. G., & Doorn, S. K. (2008) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja807785e · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Selective Aggregation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes via Salt Addition
Niyogi, S., Boukhalfa, S., Chikkannanavar, S. B., McDonald, T. J., Heben, M. J., & Doorn, S. K. (2007) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja068321j · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Miyauchi, Y., Saito, R., Sato, K., Ohno, Y., Iwasaki, S., Mizutani, T., Jiang, J., & Maruyama, S. (2007) · Chemical Physics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2007.06.018 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Induction of pH Sensitivity on the Fluorescence Lifetime of Quantum Dots by NIR Fluorescent Dyes
Tang, R., Lee, H., & Achilefu, S. A. (2012) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja300276s · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Temperature Dependence of Exciton Recombination in Semiconducting Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes
Berger, S., Voisin, C., Cassabois, G., et al. (2007) · Nano Letters · doi:10.1021/nl062609p · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Saturation of Surfactant Structure at the Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Surface
Duque, J. G., Densmore, C. G., & Doorn, S. K. (2010) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja106836f · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Aigner, D., Borisov, S. M., Petritsch, P., et al. (2013) · Chemical Communications · doi:10.1039/c3cc39151e · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Huang, J. D., Ng, A. L., Piao, Y., et al. (2013) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja310844u · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Self-citationStable Luminescence from Individual Carbon Nanotubes in Acidic, Basic, and Biological Environments
Duque, J. G., Cognet, L., Parra‐Vasquez, A. N. G., Nicholas, N., Schmidt, H., & Matteo Pasquali, A. (2008) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/ja0777234 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Brozena, A. H., Leeds, J. D., Zhang, Y., Fourkas, J. T., & Wang, Y. (2014) · ACS Nano · doi:10.1021/nn500894p · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citationZhang, Y., Valley, N. A., Brozena, A. H., Piao, Y., Song, X., Schatz, G. C., & Wang, Y. (2013) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1021/jz400167d · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Self-citationpH dependent transfer of nano-pores into membrane of cancer cells to induce apoptosis
Wijesinghe, D., Arachchige, M. C. M., Lu, A., et al. (2013) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep03560 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Silvera-Batista, C. A., Scott, D. C., McLeod, S. M., et al. (2011) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry C · doi:10.1021/jp111349x · Cited by 49 · see citing works
T-2-毒素-誘導軟骨細胞アポトーシスの抑制でのセレン・コンドロイチン硫酸ナノパーティクルによるATF2の下り-調整
Jing, H., & Guo, X. (2013) · Journal of Nanoparticle Research · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Quintero, B., Cabeza, M. C., Martínez, M. I., et al. (2003) · Canadian Journal of Chemistry · doi:10.1139/v03-088 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Critical Knowledge Gaps in Mass Transport through Single-Digit Nanopores: A Review and Perspective
Faucher, S., Aluru, N., Bazant, M. Z., Blankschtein, D., Brozena, A. H., Cumings, J., Pedro de Souza, J., Elimelech, M., Epsztein, R., Fourkas, J. T., et al. (2019) · The Journal of Physical Chemistry C · doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b02178 · Cited by 365 · see citing works
Self-citationKim, M., Chen, C., Wang, P., Mulvey, J. J., Yang, Y., Wun, C., Antman-Passig, M., Luo, H.-B., Cho, S., Long-Roche, K., et al. (2022) · Nature Biomedical Engineering · doi:10.1038/s41551-022-00860-y · Cited by 214 · see citing works
Self-citationControlling the optical properties of carbon nanotubes with organic colour-centre quantum defects
Brozena, A. H., Kim, M., Powell, L. R., & Wang, Y. (2019) · Nature Reviews Chemistry · doi:10.1038/s41570-019-0103-5 · Cited by 207 · see citing works
Self-citationMandal, A. K., Wu, X., Ferreira, J. S., Kim, M., Powell, L. R., Kwon, H., Groc, L., Wang, Y., & Cognet, L. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-62201-w · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Kwon, H., Kim, M., Meany, B., Piao, Y., Powell, L. R., & Wang, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, YuHuang
- Venue
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2015-02-09
- Volume
- 119
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 3733-3739
- ISSN
- 1932-7447 (ISSN-L)
- 1932-7455
- OpenAlex
- W2312316573
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4
- FWCI
- 3.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Division of Chemistry (CHE-1055514)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Carbon Nanotubes in Composites
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Bioengineering › Analytical Chemistry and Sensors
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Carbon and Quantum Dots Applications
- Keywords
- optical pH sensing, optical thermometry, semiconducting carbon nanotubes, covalent functionalization, defect photoluminescence, near-infrared emission, protonation and deprotonation, energy shift, nanothermometers, van't Hoff equation, complex fluids
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review