Gram-scale synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots for sensitive detection of mercury ions and l-cysteine

Sensitive and reliable detection of mercury ions (Hg ) and l-cysteine (l-Cys) is of great significance for toxicology assessment, environmental protection, food analysis and human health. Herein, we present gram-scale synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) for sensitive detection...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:RSC advances 2019-10, Vol.9 (57), p.32977-32983
Main Authors: Mao, Yuang, Zhao, Chang, Ge, Shuyan, Luo, Tao, Chen, Jie, Liu, Jiyang, Xi, Fengna, Liu, Junjie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical synthesis
Chemistry
Cysteine
Environmental protection
Fluorescent indicators
Graphene
Mercury (metal)
Nitrogen
Photoluminescence
Quantum dots
Selectivity
Thickness
Toxicology
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Summary:Sensitive and reliable detection of mercury ions (Hg ) and l-cysteine (l-Cys) is of great significance for toxicology assessment, environmental protection, food analysis and human health. Herein, we present gram-scale synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) for sensitive detection of Hg and l-Cys. The N-GQDs are one-step synthesized using bottom-up molecular fusion in a hydrothermal process with gram-scale yield at a single run. N-GQDs exhibit good structural characteristics including uniform size (∼2.1 nm), high crystallinity, and single-layered graphene thickness. Successful doping of N atom enables bright blue fluorescence (absolute photoluminescence quantum yield of 24.8%) and provides unique selectivity towards Hg . Based on the fluorescence quenching by Hg (turn-off mode), N-GQDs are able to serve as an effective fluorescent probe for sensitive detection of Hg with low limit of detection (19 nM). As l-Cys could recover the fluorescence of N-GQDs quenched by Hg , fluorescent detection of l-Cys is also demonstrated using turn-off-on mode.
ISSN:2046-2069
2046-2069
DOI:10.1039/c9ra06113d