title: Facile synthesis of soluble graphene quantum dots and its improved property in detecting heavy metal ions.
abstract: An effective approach to produce graphene quantum dots (GQDs) has been developed, which based on the cutting of graphene oxide (GO) powder into smaller pieces and being reduced by a green approach, using sodium polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) as a dispersant and l-ascorbic acid (l-AA) as the reducing agent, which is environmentally friendly. Then the as-prepared GQDs were further used for the detection of heavy metal ions Pb(2+). This kind of GQDs has greater solubility in water and is more biocompatible than GO that has been reduced by hydrazine hydrate. The few-layers of GQDs with defects and residual OH groups were shown to be particularly well suited for the determination of metal ions in the liquid phase using an electrochemical method, in which a remarkably low detection limit of 7×10(-9)M for Pb(2+) was achieved.
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry and Wildlife, Auburn University, Auburn 36849, USA. Electronic address: chengfengzhou828@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chengfeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of New Fiber Materials and Modern Textile, The Growing Base for State Key Laboratory, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China; School of Forestry and Wildlife, Auburn University, Auburn 36849, USA. Electronic address: weijiangqd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry and Wildlife, Auburn University, Auburn 36849, USA; Department of Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn 36849, USA. Electronic address: BKV0003@auburn.edu.
authors.forename: Brian K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Via
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D004566:Electrodes; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D007477:Ions; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012996:Solutions; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D007477:Ions; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012996:Solutions; D006108:Graphite
keywords: Cutting; Electrochemical detection; Graphene quantum dot; Heavy metal ions