Development of nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots as fluorescent probes for highly selective and sensitive detection of the heavy-ion Fe3+

Abstract

Highly luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are developed as fluorescent probes for selective detection of the heavy-ion Fe 3+ , where the CQDs exhibit excellent nontoxicity, functionalizability, sensitivity, and selectivity. Biomass-based CQDs and nitrogen-doped CQDs (N-CQDs) are synthesized for the selective detection of Fe 3+ by using H 2 O 2 as an oxidant and polyetherimide (PEI) as a nitrogen precursor by a green hydrothermal synthesis method. The prepared CQDs and N-CQDs exhibit an elliptical morphology and with an average particle size of 7 and 4\xa0nm, respectively, and emit blue photoluminescence at 445 and 468\xa0nm under excitation at 367 and 343\xa0nm, respectively. The CQDs and N-CQDs exhibit good water solubility because of the abundant hydroxyl and carboxyl/carbonyl groups and graphic/pyrrolic/pyridinic nitrogen on the surfaces, giving rise to a quantum yield of about 24.2% and 30.7%, respectively. Notably, the Matrimony vine-PEI-based CQDs exhibit excellent Fe 3+ selectivity and sensitivity relative to the Matrimony vine-based CQDs due to complexation of the numerous phenolic hydroxyl groups and nitrogen-containing groups with Fe 3+ , leading to increased fluorescence quenching, which greatly improves the sensitivity of detection. The minimum detection limit was 2.22\xa0µmol L −1 with a complexation constant of 44.7.