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Nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots as a fluorescent probe for mercury(II) ions

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Abstract

A highly selective fluorescent probe for Hg2+ is reported. It consists of nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) that are nearly spherical in shape, have an average diameter of 2.7 nm and excitation-independent emission. The blue fluorescence of the NGQDs (with maximum excitation/emission at 378/447 nm) is quenched by Hg2+ due to both dynamic and static quenching. The probe has a wide detection range (2.5 μM – 800 μM) and a limit of detection of 2.5 μM. The dynamic and static quenching constants are 417 M−1 and 63500 M−1, respectively. The probe was used to quantfy Hg2+ in spiked real water samples with satisfactory results.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Science Foundation of China (61635004, 61705023, 61705024, 11574161, 61405023), Key Research and Development Project of Ministry of Science and Technology (2016YFC0801200), Chongqing Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (CQBX201703), Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Chongqing (Xm2017047), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (cstc2018jcyjAX0644), Science and Technology on Plasma Physics Laboratory (6142A0403050817), and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (61825501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology & Systems of the Education Ministry of China, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Yongfeng Liu, Xiaosheng Tang, Ming Deng, Yulong Cao, Yujia Li, Hua Zheng, Fuhui Li, Fabin Yan, Tianyi Lan, Leilei Shi, Lei Gao, Ligang Huang, Tao Zhu & Hao Lin

  2. State Key Laboratory of Safety and Control for Chemicals, SINOPEC Research Institute of Safety Engineering, Qingdao, 266000, China

    Yongzhong Bai, Dingrong Qu, Xianbin Huang & Feng Qiu

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  1. Yongfeng Liu
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  2. Xiaosheng Tang
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Correspondence to Tao Zhu.

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Liu, Y., Tang, X., Deng, M. et al. Nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots as a fluorescent probe for mercury(II) ions. Microchim Acta 186, 140 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3249-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3249-4

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