One-pot electrochemical synthesis of functionalized fluorescent carbon dots and their selective sensing for mercury ion.
We propose a simple, economical, and one-pot method to synthesize water-soluble functionalized fluorescent carbon dots (C-Dots) through electrochemical carbonization of sodium citrate and urea. The as-prepared C-Dots have good photostability and exhibit a high quantum yield of 11.9%. The sizes of the C-Dots are mainly distributed in the range of 1.0-3.5 nm with an average size of 2.4 nm. It has been further used as a novel label-free sensing probe for selective detection of Hg(2+) ions with detection limit as low as 3.3 nM. The detection linear range is 0.01-10 μM. The as-prepared C-Dots are also successfully applied for the determination of Hg(2+) in real water samples.
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
Yuxin
Y
Hou
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
Qiujun
Q
Lu
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
Jianhui
J
Deng
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China.
Haitao
H
Li
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, PR China. Electronic address: zhangyy@hunnu.edu.cn.
Youyu
Y
Zhang
D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D055664:Electrochemical Techniques; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D007477:Ions; D002244:Carbon; D008628:Mercury
Electrochemical carbonization; Fluorescent sensor; Functionalized carbon dots; Mercury ions; One-pot synthesis; Real water samples