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It doesn't necessarily take fancy equipment or complicated procedures to produce carbon nanoparticles. Using common candle soot, Purdue University chemists Chengde Mao, Haipeng Liu, and Tao Ye were able to prepare water-soluble fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 6473). The method, they say, offers an inexpensive and efficient route to these little-studied materials, which could be used as fluorescent labels for biosensing applications. The researchers first collect soot by placing a glass plate over a smoldering candle. They then subject the soot to an oxidative acid treatment that introduces hydroxyl and carboxyl groups to the surface of the nanoparticles. This surface functionalization gives the nanoparticles charge, rendering them hydrophilic so that they can be separated by gel electrophoresis. The nanoparticles' photoluminescence emission spectra have a broad color range (shown), with wavelengths stretching from 415 to 615 nm. The Purdue team currently is determining the precise chemical properties that give rise to the nanoparticles' spectrum of colors, as well as their potential for biosensing.
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