Abstract
Carbon dots and gold nanoclusters co-encapsulated by zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (CDs/AuNCs@ZIF-8) have been obtained at room temperature. The composite has been applied to the ratiometric fluorescence determination of mercury(II). The composite shows fluorescence emission maxima at 440 and 640 nm under 360 nm excitation, due to the CDs and AuNCs, respectively (associated quantum yields were 18% and 17%, respectively). In the presence of Hg2+, the fluorescence at about 640 nm is quenched, while the fluorescence at about 440 nm is unaffected. The CDs/AuNCs@ZIF-8 composite allows the sensitive detection of Hg2+, with the fluorescence intensity ratio (I640/I440) decreasing linearly with Hg2+ concentration over the range 3–30 nM. The fluorescence emission of the composite changes color from red to blue with increasing Hg2+ under UV excitation, which can easily be discerned visually. This visual detection of Hg2+ is due to the high fluorescence quantum yields of the CDs and AuNCs and the ~ 200 nm separation between the two emission maxima.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771342, 31872889), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2019MD025, ZR2017BB064), the Key R&D Program of Shandong Province, China (2018YYSP029), the “13th Five-Year” National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFD0801504), and the Funds of Shandong Double Tops Program, China (SYL2017XTTD01). GINW received funding support from the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, the Dodd Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) Catalyst Fund, Contract MAUX1609: “Disruptive Technologies from Metal-Organic Frameworks.”
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Manli Guo and Jingtian Chi are co-first authors.
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Guo, M., Chi, J., Li, Y. et al. Fluorometric determination of mercury(II) based on dual-emission metal-organic frameworks incorporating carbon dots and gold nanoclusters. Microchim Acta 187, 534 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04508-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04508-z