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Facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon dots and its application as sensing probes for serum iron

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Abstract

In this paper, nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) with a quantum yield of 23.6 % were successfully synthesized by microwave pyrolysis of urea using diethylene glycol as the high boiling point reaction medium. The N-CDs were spherical and monodisperse with a size distribution between 1.5 and 5.5 nm. The N-CDs exhibited excellent water-soluble property and remarkable stability under extreme ionic strengths and light illumination. The fluorescence of the N-CDs could be quenched by Fe3+ through the static quenching mechanism, but not by other common metal ions. On this basis, the N-CDs can be used as a facile sensing platform for label-free sensitive and selective detection of Fe3+ in a linear range of 1.6–333.3 μmol L−1, and the detection limit was 0.45 μmol L−1 obtained at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Importantly, the N-CDs-based fluorescent probe was successfully applied to the direct analysis of iron contents in human serum samples, which demonstrated potential applications in biological and clinical analysis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Jilin Province, China (Grant number 20150204070GX).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun, 130012, People’s Republic of China

    Long Wang, Juan Hou, Huiyu Li, Qi Zhao, Fengshuang Zhang, Jiahui Zhao & Lan Ding

  2. State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Ding

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  1. Long Wang
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  2. Juan Hou
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  4. Qi Zhao
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  7. Hong Ding
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Correspondence to Lan Ding.

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Wang, L., Hou, J., Li, H. et al. Facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon dots and its application as sensing probes for serum iron. J Nanopart Res 17, 457 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-3252-6

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