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Nitrogen/sulfur-co-doped carbon quantum dots: a biocompatible material for the selective detection of picric acid in aqueous solution and living cells

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Abstract

Here, a fast and eco-friendly one-pot hydrothermal technique is utilized for the synthesis of nitrogen/sulfur-co-doped fluorescent carbon quantum dots (NS-CQDs) from a simple precursor of citric acid (CA) and thiosemicarbazide (TSC). The obtained NS-CQDs exhibited strong blue emission under UV light, with fluorescence quantum yield (QY) of ~37.8%. The Commission internationale de l’eclairage (CIE) coordinates originated at (0.15, 0.07), which confirmed the blue fluorescence of the synthesized NS-CQDs. Interestingly, the prepared NS-CQDs were successfully used as a selective nanoprobe for the monitoring of environmentally hazardous explosive picric acid (PA) in different nitro- and non-nitro-aromatic derivatives of PA. The mechanism of the NS-CQDs was also explored, and was posited to occur via the fluorescence resonance electron transfer (FRET) process and non-fluorescent complex formation. Importantly, this system possesses excellent biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity in HeLa cervical cancer cells; hence, it can potentially be used for PA detection in analytical, environmental, and pathological applications. Furthermore, the practical applicability of the proposed sensing system to pond water demonstrated the feasibility of our system along with good recovery.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Indian Institute of Technology IIT (BHU), Varanasi, and MHRD New Delhi, India. The authors SC, DB, PP, VKS, and PKY acknowledge the Department of Chemistry and Central Instrument Facility (CIF), IIT (BHU), Varanasi, for providing an instrumentation facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano-Material Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, UP, 221005, India

    Subhash Chandra, Daraksha Bano, Vikas Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Yadav & Syed Hadi Hasan

  2. Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, UP, 221005, India

    Priyadarshika Pradhan & Devanjan Sinha

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  1. Subhash Chandra
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  2. Daraksha Bano
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Chandra, S., Bano, D., Pradhan, P. et al. Nitrogen/sulfur-co-doped carbon quantum dots: a biocompatible material for the selective detection of picric acid in aqueous solution and living cells. Anal Bioanal Chem 412, 3753–3763 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02629-1

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