Developing reliable biocompatible bioimaging agents is
paramount
for diagnosing critical diseases and disorders early through oral
ingestion of fluorescent probes to image living organisms. Here, we
prepared fluorescent, water-dispersed graphene oxide quantum dots
via
pyrolysis of a
Glycyrrhiza glabra
root in the water medium using a cost-effective and environmentally
benign method to enable
Drosophila melanogaster
, an organism analogous to the human genome, to be imaged alive.
The prepared graphene oxide quantum dots demonstrated a 2.6 nm diameter
and 0.36 nm graphitic spacing with carboxylic acid, carbonyl, and
hydroxyl functionalities. The selected area electron diffraction image
analysis reveals a series of bright circular patterns that confirm
the crystalline nature of the graphene oxide quantum dots. Raman and
X-ray diffraction analyses also validate the crystallinity nature
of prepared materials. The graphene oxide quantum dots exhibited blue
fluorescence under ultraviolet-light irradiation with excitation-dependent
emission properties from blue to red emission. The synthesized graphene
oxide quantum dots consistently fluoresce in the larva-fed graphene
oxide quantum dots without exhibiting toxicity. The current study
evaluates the toxic effect of synthesized fluorescent graphene quantum
dots by examining several screening and staining methods on
D. melanogaster
, a fruit fly, as a model.