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Nano Research 2020, 13(11): 3012-3018 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2965-8
Research Article | Issue | Published: 07 August 2020

Ultrastable and ultrasensitive pH-switchable carbon dots with high quantum yield for water quality identification, glucose detection, and two starch-based solid-state fluorescence materials

Show Author's Information Daiyong Chao1,2,  Jinxing Chen2,  Qing Dong1,2,  Weiwei Wu2,  Desheng Qi1,  Shaojun Dong1,2( )
College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China
Keywords:
glucose detection, high quantum yield, carbon dot, pH-ultrasensitive optical properties, water quality identification, solid-state fluorescence materials
Topics:
CarbonFluorescenceGlucoseGlucose oxidaseGlucose sensors Gold nanoparticlesOptical propertiesQuantum theory Quantum yield
Cite this article:
Chao D, Chen J, Dong Q, et al. Ultrastable and ultrasensitive pH-switchable carbon dots with high quantum yield for water quality identification, glucose detection, and two starch-based solid-state fluorescence materials. Nano Research, 2020, 13(11): 3012-3018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2965-8
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

It is attractive and encouraging to develop new fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) with excellent optical properties and promising applications prospects. Herein, highly-efficient green emissive CDs (m-CDs) with a high quantum yield (QY) of 71.7% in water are prepared through a facile solvothermal method. Interestingly, the m-CDs exhibit excellent fluorescence stability in the pH range of 1-9. However, the fluorescence intensity of the m-CDs is almost completely quenched as the pH is increased from 9 to 10. The mechanism of the unique pH-responsive behavior is discussed in detail and a plausible mechanism is proposed. Owing to the unique pH-responsive behavior, the m-CDs are used as a on-off fluorescent probe for water quality identification. By combining the reversible pH-ultrasensitive optical properties of the m-CDs in the pH range of 9-10 with the glucose oxidase-mimicking (GOx-mimicking) ability of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), glucose can be quantitatively detected. Finally, two environment-friendly starch-based solid-state fluorescence materials (powder and film) are developed through green preparation routes.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Ultrastable and ultrasensitive pH-switchable carbon dots with high quantum yield for water quality identification, glucose detection, and two starch-based solid-state fluorescence materials

Show Author's information Daiyong Chao1,2, Jinxing Chen2, Qing Dong1,2, Weiwei Wu2, Desheng Qi1, Shaojun Dong1,2( )
College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China

Abstract

It is attractive and encouraging to develop new fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) with excellent optical properties and promising applications prospects. Herein, highly-efficient green emissive CDs (m-CDs) with a high quantum yield (QY) of 71.7% in water are prepared through a facile solvothermal method. Interestingly, the m-CDs exhibit excellent fluorescence stability in the pH range of 1-9. However, the fluorescence intensity of the m-CDs is almost completely quenched as the pH is increased from 9 to 10. The mechanism of the unique pH-responsive behavior is discussed in detail and a plausible mechanism is proposed. Owing to the unique pH-responsive behavior, the m-CDs are used as a on-off fluorescent probe for water quality identification. By combining the reversible pH-ultrasensitive optical properties of the m-CDs in the pH range of 9-10 with the glucose oxidase-mimicking (GOx-mimicking) ability of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), glucose can be quantitatively detected. Finally, two environment-friendly starch-based solid-state fluorescence materials (powder and film) are developed through green preparation routes.

Keywords: glucose detection, high quantum yield, carbon dot, pH-ultrasensitive optical properties, water quality identification, solid-state fluorescence materials

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 May 2020
Revised: 29 June 2020
Accepted: 30 June 2020
Published: 07 August 2020
Issue date: November 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21375123, 21675151, and 21721003) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2016YFA0203203).

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