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Fluorometric and colorimetric determination of hypochlorite using carbon nanodots doped with boron and nitrogen

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Abstract

Carbon nanodots doped with boron and nitrogen (BN-CDs) with an average diameter of around 11 nm were prepared by a hydrothermal approach using adenine and 3-aminobenzene boronic acid as the starting materials. The atomic ratio of boron to nitrogen atomic in the BN-CDs is approximately 1:1. This indicates that a large fraction of N atoms goes lost during preparation because the B/N ratio of the precursors is about 1:6. The BN-CDs display blue fluorescence (best measured at excitation/emission wavelengths of 305/380 nm) which is independent of the excitation wavelength. On exposure to hypochlorite anion, fluorescence is quenched and the color of the solutions changes from yellow to brown. Fluorescence drops linearly in the 0.1–1000 μM hypochlorite concentration range. The colorimetric response, best measured as the absorbance ratio at 236/260 nm, ranges from 0.3 to 4.0 mM. The color changes can be readily detected visually. The probe was applied to the determination of hypochlorite in living cells and in (spiked) tap water.

Excitation wavelength-independent fluorescent boron and nitrogen codoped carbon nanodots (BN-CDs) were obtained by a hydrothermal approach. The BN-CDs were used to detect hypochlorite in wastewater by a fluorometric and colorimetric dual-readout assay.

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Acknowledgements

We greatly appreciate the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21705140, 21876144, 21575123, 21675139) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20170474) and the Work was Supported by Joint Open Fund of Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Building Material and Environmental Protection Equipments and Key Laboratory for Advanced Technology in Environmental Protection of Jiangsu Province. We appreciate the support of the opening project of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Marine Wetland (K2016-17, K2016-20).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224051, People’s Republic of China

    Zhong-Xia Wang, Xing Jin, Yuan-Fei Gao, Fen-Ying Kong, Wen-Juan Wang & Wei Wang

  2. Key Laboratory for Advanced Technology in Environmental Protection of Jiangsu Province, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224051, People’s Republic of China

    Zhong-Xia Wang

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  1. Zhong-Xia Wang
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Correspondence to Wei Wang.

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Wang, ZX., Jin, X., Gao, YF. et al. Fluorometric and colorimetric determination of hypochlorite using carbon nanodots doped with boron and nitrogen. Microchim Acta 186, 328 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3443-4

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