title: High-yield synthesis of strong photoluminescent N-doped carbon nanodots derived from hydrosoluble chitosan for mercury ion sensing via smartphone APP.
abstract: Photoluminescent carbon nanodots (CNDs) have offered considerable potential to be used in biomedical and environmental fields including live cell imaging and heavy metal ion detection due to their superior quantum emission efficiencies, ability to be functionalized using a variety of chemistries and apparent absence of toxicity. However, to date, synthetic yield of CNDs derived from biomass via hydrothermal carbonization is quite low. We report here the synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (N-doped CNDs) derived from hydrosoluble chitosan via hydrothermal carbonization. The synthetic yield could reach 38.4% which is 2.2-320 times increase compared with that from other biomass reported so far. These N-doped CNDs exhibited a high quantum yield (31.8%) as a consequence of nitrogen incorporation coincident with multiple types of functional groups (C=O, O-H, COOH, and NH2). We further demonstrate applications of N-doped CNDs as probes for live cell multicolor imaging and heavy metal ion detection. The N-doped CNDs offered potential as mercury ion sensors with detection limit of 80nM. A smartphone application (APP) based on N-doped CNDs was developed for the first time providing a portable and low cost detection platform for detection of Hg(2+) and alert of heavy metal ions contamination.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: libq@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Baoqiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China; Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, PR China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Xinyao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Demeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Daqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Sino-Russian Institute of Hard Tissue Development and Regeneration, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Yaming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Dechang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Ceramics; State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002413:Cations, Divalent / Q000032:analysis; D002460:Cell Line; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D049408:Luminescent Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D061848:Optical Imaging; D000068997:Smartphone / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D002413:Cations, Divalent; D049408:Luminescent Agents; D002244:Carbon; D048271:Chitosan; D008628:Mercury; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: High-yield synthesis; Nitrogen-containing biomass; Nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots; Smartphone-based mercury ion sensor