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Nitrogen and Sulfur Co-doped Carbon Dots as a Turn-Off Fluorescence Probe for the Detection of Cerium and Iron

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Abstract

Carbon dots has becoming one of the most promising fluorescence sensors to determine the trace level of heavy metals in environments because of their advantages in optical properties, response time, and convenient operation procedures. Herein, a novel nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon dots (NS-CDs) were prepared though microwave assisted approach using DL-malic acid and allyl thiourea for the first time. Due to the existence of nitrogen and sulfur, the as-prepared NS-CDs exhibited bright blue fluorescence at 430 nm upon 330 nm excitation, with a fluorescence quantum yield of 19.8%. The sensitivity study of NS-CDs against metal ions and organic molecules has approved that the fluorescence could be further quenched by Ce4+ and Fe3+ ions, with the same linear detection ranges varying from 10 to 90 µM. The limits of detection (LOD) were determined as low as 0.75 µM and 0.67 µM for Ce4+ and Fe3+ ions, respectively. The possible quenching mechanism is explained by inner filter effect and static quenching mechanism for Ce4+ ions, while the quenching effect caused by Fe3+ ions is attributed to the inner filter effect, static and dynamic quenching mechanisms. Additionally, the developed sensor was used for the detection of Ce4+ and Fe3+ ions in tap water with satisfactory recoveries. Finally, the designed NS-CDs sensor possesses good biocompatibility against MA104 cells, suggesting the sensor can be potentially applied to detect Ce4+ and Fe3+ ions in environment and biological systems.

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Data Availability

The datasets supporting the results during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science of China (Grant numbers 52071281 and 51971197), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (Grant numbers E2020203081 and B2022407009), the Science and Technology Project of Hebei Education Department (Grant number BJK2022033), and the Hebei Province Foundation for Returned Talent (Grant number C20210322).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebei Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Lichao Pei, Shuqin Yang, Kangli Chen & Shumin Han

  2. State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Shumin Han

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao, 066004, People’s Republic of China

    Weiyuan Zhang, Xiaoxuan Zhu & Yan Zhao

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  1. Lichao Pei
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  2. Weiyuan Zhang
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  4. Kangli Chen
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  5. Xiaoxuan Zhu
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  6. Yan Zhao
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Lichao Pei: Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing. Weiyuan Zhang: Investigation, Methodology, review & editing. Shuqin Yang: Investigation, review & editing. Kangli Chen: Investigation, Methodology, review & editing. Xiaoxun Zhu: Investigation, Methodology. Yan Zhao: Review & editing. Shumin Han: Review & editing. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript, experiments and original draft.

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Pei, L., Zhang, W., Yang, S. et al. Nitrogen and Sulfur Co-doped Carbon Dots as a Turn-Off Fluorescence Probe for the Detection of Cerium and Iron. J Fluoresc 33, 1147–1156 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-022-03126-7

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