The Behavior of Carbonized Polymer Dots at the Nano‐Bio Interface and Their Luminescent Mechanism: A Physical Chemistry Perspective

Carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) have been widely applied in biomedical fields, such as imaging, diagnosis and drug delivery. Since the complex, non-equilibrated and dynamic nature of biological systems inevitably affect the predesigned properties of CPDs, then efficiency and ultimate outcome of CPDs in biological identity will be transformed by the ubiquitous nano-bio interactions. Herein, our recent progress about elucidating the behavior of CPDs at nano-bio interface from the perspective of physical chemistry has been summarized in the review, mainly at the bio-macromolecular, cellular membrane and cellular levels, which is crucial for characterize their relative cytotoxicity and clinical transformation. Moreover, we mainly focused on the quantitative relationship of nano-bio interactions between CPDs with biological identity and related thermodynamics parameters during this process is also obtained from advanced isothermal titration calorimetry technique. Finally, our recent study about the photoluminescence origin is also included in this review, which favors modulating the photoluminescence of CPDs. What is the most favorite and original chemistry developed in your research group? Chemical thermodynamic nature of chemical and biological process. How do you get into this specific field? Could you please share some experiences with our readers? In 2003, several articles from Science, Nature and Nature Biotechnology discussed the potential side effects of nanomaterials on the human health and environment. At the same time, Prof. Daiwen Pang developed QDs for biolabling, and I (Prof. Yi Liu) began to pay attention to the effect of QDs on living things. In 2006, we obtained the Innovation Research Groups of NSFC (20621502), and in this project, I was responsible for the biological effect of nanoprobe. How do you keep balance between research and family? 90% of my time for research work, and 10% of my time for family things. How do you supervise your students? First, according to the students’ interests, I will give them some new and important papers to read, and then discuss with them about their research field. We will discuss the research progress at any time, and we have seminar every week. What is the most important personality for scientific research? Curiosity, power of understanding. What's your hobbies? What's your favorite book(s)? My hobbies are reading and badminton. My favorite books are Physical Chemistry (Edited by Xiancai Fu) and Organic Chemistry (4th Edited by David Klein).