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Concentration-dependent emission of nitrogen-doped carbon dots and its use in hazardous metal-ion detection

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Abstract

Nitrogen-doped carbon dots (CDts) with tunable fluorescence properties in aqueous media were synthesized hydrothermally. The excitation wavelength variation to obtain the maximum emission produced a blue shift in the emission peaks upon dilution in an aqueous solution. The shift can be explained by a re-absorption phenomenon in a concentrated solution. The interparticle interaction within was responsible to show dilution-dependent optical behavior. The as-synthesized solution of CDts did not show any prominent absorption peak over a wide range. However, upon dilution, two peaks became predominant. The concentration-dependent behavior was observed during the interaction with metal cations. Cationic salts of Co(II) and Hg(II) caused quenching at different dilutions of CDts. This might be explained by the exposure of different surface functional groups during dilution and metal-ion–CDts charge transfer. The quenched fluorescence of CDts was rescued using ascorbic acid. Therefore, the one-pot detection of Co(II)/Hg(II) and ascorbic acid was designed through a ‘Turn Off/On’ phenomenon.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2019R1A2B5B02069683).

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  1. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Daehak-ro 93, Nam-gu, Ulsan, 44610, Republic of Korea

    Jayasmita Jana & Seung Hyun Hur

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  1. Jayasmita Jana
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42823_2020_182_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Electronic supplementary material contains the Experimental section, stability of CDt with time, FTIR spectra of CDt at different dilution, fluorescence spectra of CDt in different organic solvents at varied dilution condition, fluorescence of CDt at different dilution in the presence of metal ions, removal of interference for Co(II) detection, fluorescence of CDt1000 in presence of Hg(II) at different pH, table showing different components of lifetime values of CDts at different dilutions, comparative tables for Co(II), Hg(II), and AA detection. (DOCX 3096 kb)

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Jana, J., Hur, S.H. Concentration-dependent emission of nitrogen-doped carbon dots and its use in hazardous metal-ion detection. Carbon Lett. 31, 523–536 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42823-020-00182-6

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