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Sensitive and selective detection of copper ions using low cost nitrogen doped carbon quantum dots as a fluorescent sensing plateform

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Abstract

The current study reports a facile, single step microwave assisted synthesis of nitrogen, oxygen-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) with high quantum yield (~36%). The synthesized NCQDs with an average size of 4 nm demonstrate many fold increase in the intensity of photoluminescence (PL) over the undoped carbon quantum dots (CQDs). UV–Vis absorption peak exhibits a red shift of 26 nm for NCQDs with respect to pristine CQDs. The spectral shift was further confirmed by density functional theory based calculations. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements reveal the graphitic nature and significantly high nitrogen doping of NCQDs (38.2%). The NCQDs exhibited excitation dependent PL behaviour in the visible region with maximum emission peak recorded at 415 nm with optimum excitation wavelength of 340 nm. The remarkably enhanced PL properties of NCQDs have been employed as fluorescent probe for sensitive and selective sensing of Cu2+ ions. The Cu2+ quenches the fluorescence intensity of NCQDs due to its high binding affinity towards N and O containing functional groups in quantum dots. The NCQDs render a simple, reliable and sensitive detection of Cu2+ ions with limit of detection as low as 1.8 µM.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of CAS program of the Department of Zoology for the completion of the present work. Authors also acknowledge Biophysics Laboratory, Department of Physics for extending their characterization facility. Authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support from SERB, India (Project code-EMR/2016/007720). Authors would also like to acknowledge the Erasmus Mundus for a doctoral fellowship, Carl Tryggers Stiftelse for Vetenskaplig Forskning (CTS) & Swedish Research Council (VR) for financial support. SNIC, HPC2N and UPPMAX are acknowledged for providing computing time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Vimal Singh, Vinod Kumar, Umakant Yadav & Preeti S. Saxena

  2. Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, 560 012, India

    Rajesh Kr. Srivastava

  3. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K. S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Vidya Nand Singh, A. K. Shukla & D. K. Misra

  4. Condensed Matter Theory Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box -516, 75120, Uppsala, Sweden

    Amitava Banerjee, Sudip Chakraborty & Rajeev Ahuja

  5. Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Anchal Srivastava

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  1. Vimal Singh
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Correspondence to Anchal Srivastava or Preeti S. Saxena.

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Singh, V., Kumar, V., Yadav, U. et al. Sensitive and selective detection of copper ions using low cost nitrogen doped carbon quantum dots as a fluorescent sensing plateform. ISSS J Micro Smart Syst 6, 109–117 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41683-017-0011-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41683-017-0011-1

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