Self-assembly of nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles: a new ratiometric UV-vis optical sensor for the highly sensitive and selective detection of Hg(2+) in aqueous solution.
Water-soluble nitrogen-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs) prepared by the one-step hydrothermal treatment of uric acid were found to show ratiometric changes in their UV-vis spectra due to Hg(2+)-mediated self-assembly. For the first time, such a property was developed into a UV-vis optical sensor for detecting Hg(2+) in aqueous solutions with high sensitively and selectively (detection limit = 1.4 nM). More importantly, this novel sensor exhibits a higher linear sensitivity over a wider concentration range compared with the fluorescence sensor based on the same N-CNPs. This work opens an exciting new avenue to explore the use of carbon nanoparticles in constructing UV-vis optical sensors for the detection of metal ions and the use of carbon nanoparticles as a new building block to self-assemble into superlattices.
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Changchun 130022, Jilin, China. jiangxiue@ciac.ac.cn and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Yudi
Y
Ruan
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Changchun 130022, Jilin, China. jiangxiue@ciac.ac.cn and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Lie
L
Wu
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Changchun 130022, Jilin, China. jiangxiue@ciac.ac.cn.
Xiue
X
Jiang