Patent ID: 8932877
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: C01B,C09K,G01N,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting the presence of a compound in a sample comprising: contacting a sample with a photoluminescent carbon nanoparticle, the photoluminescent carbon nanoparticle comprising a core and a passivation agent coupled to a surface of the core, the core being less than about 100 nanometers in size and being formed exclusively of one of the following: amorphous carbon, graphite, crystalline carbon, amorphous carbon with one or more metals embedded in the amorphous carbon, graphite with one or more metals embedded in the graphite, or crystalline carbon with one or more metals embedded in the crystalline carbon, the passivation agent terminating reactive bonds at the surface and rendering the reactive bonds chemically passive, wherein the core surface is photoluminescent with the passivation agent coupled to the core and the core surface is not photoluminescent absent the passivation agent; binding the photoluminescent carbon nanoparticle to the compound to form a complex, wherein the photoluminescent carbon nanoparticle comprises a specific binding member for the compound; and detecting the compound according to the photoluminescent properties of the photoluminescent carbon nanoparticle bound thereto.