Highly selective detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol by using newly developed terbium-doped blue carbon dots.
The detection of nitroaromatic explosives is of great importance owing to their strong explosive power and harmfulness in terms of the environment, homeland security and public safety. Herein, rare earth-doped carbon dots with multifunctional features were firstly prepared by simply keeping the mixture of terbium(iii) nitrate pentahydrate and citric acid at 190 °C for 30 min. The as-prepared terbium doped carbon dots (Tb-CDs), through a rapid and simple direct carbonization route, have a size of about 3 nm, and exhibit excitation wavelength dependent emission of blue fluorescence, are stable, and can be applied for the selective and colorimetric detection of 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) in the range of 500 nM-100 μM with a limit of detection of 200 nM based on the inner filtering effect (IFE) of the excitation and emission bands of Tb-CDs by TNP and the electron transfer (ET) from Tb-CDs to TNP, giving a precise and highly reproducible result for detecting complex water samples.
Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. chengzhi@swu.edu.cn.
Bin Bin
BB
Chen
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis (Southwest University), Chongqing Science & Technology Commission, College of Pharmaceutical Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
Ze Xi
ZX
Liu
Chongqing Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis (Southwest University), Chongqing Science & Technology Commission, College of Pharmaceutical Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
Hong Yan
HY
Zou
Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. chengzhi@swu.edu.cn and Chongqing Key Laboratory of Biomedical Analysis (Southwest University), Chongqing Science & Technology Commission, College of Pharmaceutical Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China.
Cheng Zhi
CZ
Huang