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A route to brightly fluorescent carbon nanotubes for near-infrared imaging in mice

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 773–780 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The near-infrared photoluminescence intrinsic to semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes is ideal for biological imaging owing to the low autofluorescence and deep tissue penetration in the near-infrared region beyond 1 µm. However, biocompatible single-walled carbon nanotubes with high quantum yield have been elusive. Here, we show that sonicating single-walled carbon nanotubes with sodium cholate, followed by surfactant exchange to form phospholipid–polyethylene glycol coated nanotubes, produces in vivo imaging agents that are both bright and biocompatible. The exchange procedure is better than directly sonicating the tubes with the phospholipid–polyethylene glycol, because it results in less damage to the nanotubes and improves the quantum yield. We show whole-animal in vivo imaging using an InGaAs camera in the 1–1.7 µm spectral range by detecting the intrinsic near-infrared photoluminescence of the ‘exchange’ single-walled carbon nanotubes at a low dose (17 mg l−1 injected dose). The deep tissue penetration and low autofluorescence background allowed high-resolution intravital microscopy imaging of tumour vessels beneath thick skin.

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Figure 1: Comparison of exchange- and direct-SWNTs.
Figure 2: Atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy.
Figure 3: In vitro NIR photoluminescence targeted cell imaging.
Figure 4: In vivo NIR photoluminescence imaging of mice.
Figure 5: Intravital NIR photoluminescence imaging of tumour vessels.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank X. Chen for the RGD peptide. This work was supported partially by CCNE-TR at Stanford University, NIH-NCI RO1 CA135109-02 and Ensysce.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Kevin Welsher, Zhuang Liu, Sarah P. Sherlock, Joshua Tucker Robinson, Zhuo Chen, Dan Daranciang & Hongjie Dai

  2. Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM) Laboratory, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China

    Zhuang Liu

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  1. Kevin Welsher
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  2. Zhuang Liu
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  3. Sarah P. Sherlock
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  4. Joshua Tucker Robinson
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  7. Hongjie Dai
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Contributions

K.W., Z.L., S.S., J.R., D.D. and H.D. conceived and designed the experiments. K.W., Z.L., S.S., J.R. and Z.C. performed the experiments. K.W. analysed the data. K.W. and H.D. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Hongjie Dai.

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Welsher, K., Liu, Z., Sherlock, S. et al. A route to brightly fluorescent carbon nanotubes for near-infrared imaging in mice. Nature Nanotech 4, 773–780 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.294

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