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Synthesis of polyvinylpyrrolidone-protected silver nanoclusters with strong fluorescence for highly sensitive and selective hexavalent chromium ion detection

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Abstract

Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-protected and strongly luminescent silver nanoclusters (AgNCs@PVP) were synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis under the reduction of formaldehyde aqueous solution. The effects of the concentration ratio of reactants, reaction temperature, reaction time, and pH of the reaction system on the AgNCs@PVP synthesis process were investigated. The luminescent properties, structure, and morphology were characterized. On the basis of the change in AgNCs@PVP fluorescence spectrum caused by hexavalent chromium ion, a method for detecting hexavalent chromium ion was established. Results show a good linear relationship between the concentration of hexavalent chromium ion and the intensity of AgNCs@PVP fluorescence emission spectrum, and the linear range is 2–340 μM. The minimum detection limit is 0.2039 nM, and it was applied to the detection of hexavalent chromium ion in actual water samples. Considering ascorbic acid (AA) can recover the fluorescence quenching of AgNCs@PVP, an “on–off–on” switch was established, and the interaction mechanism of this system was studied in detail.

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Acknowledgements

The work was sponsored by the Scientific Research Projects of Colleges and Universities in Hainan Province (Nos. Hnky-2022ZD-19), the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 222QN333), Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund (Nos. ZDYF2023GXJS001), and the projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22266028)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, Qiongtai Normal University, Hainan, 571100, China

    Xueling Cao, Tingting Zheng & Danfeng He

  2. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Yageng Bai

  3. School of Foreign Languages, Qiongtai Normal University, Hainan, 571100, China

    Ge Yu

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  1. Xueling Cao
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  2. Yageng Bai
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Contributions

XueLing Cao contributed to conceptualization and methodology; YaGeng Bai helped in data curation, software, and validation. Ge Yu helped in writing—original draft preparation. Tingting Zheng helped in visualization, investigation, and formal analysis. Danfeng He helped in writing—reviewing and editing and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Xueling Cao or Danfeng He.

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Supplementary information

The supplementary information includes the optimization of the preparation conditions of silver nanoclusters, TEM of AgNCs@PVP and SEM mapping of elements Ag, O and C at low resolution, effects of pH and storage temperature on the fluorescence stability of AgNCs@PVP, quenching and recovery cycle of AgNCs@PVP-hexavalent chromium ions-AA system.

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Handling Editor: Annela M. Seddon.

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Cao, X., Bai, Y., Yu, G. et al. Synthesis of polyvinylpyrrolidone-protected silver nanoclusters with strong fluorescence for highly sensitive and selective hexavalent chromium ion detection. J Mater Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09701-6

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