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Soy flour-derived carbon dots: facile preparation, fluorescence enhancement, and sensitive Fe3+ detection

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Abstract

Soy flour-derived carbon quantum dots (C-dots) were successfully synthesized via a facile one-step hydrothermal approach. The as-prepared C-dots exhibit an average diameter of 2.5 nm and the crystalline lattices are consistent with graphitic carbons. Meanwhile, they show strong photoluminescence (quantum yield is 7.85 %), good water solubility, and high photostability. Importantly, structural defects of the C-dots were designed to obtain controllable fluorescence, which was achieved by changing the contents of N defects and O defects of C-dots. Our results indicate that N defects can more effectively enhance the fluorescence emission than O defects. As the preparation temperature increases, the N defects are fine-tuned by substituting for partial O defects, reducing nonradiative recombination and enhancing fluorescence intensity, which is further confirmed by surface passivation. Due to its fine photostability, high sensitivity, and good selectivity for Fe3+, the as-prepared C-dots were used as fluorescence probes for detection of ferric ion. The detection limitation comes to 0.021 µM.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21376268) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 15CX08005A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, 266580, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Liyang Fang, Qian Xu, Weina Zhang, Jingtang Zheng, Mingbo Wu & Wenting Wu

  2. Bei Jing Sinen En-Tech Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100080, People’s Republic of China

    Xing Zheng

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  1. Liyang Fang
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  2. Qian Xu
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  3. Xing Zheng
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  4. Weina Zhang
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  5. Jingtang Zheng
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Correspondence to Jingtang Zheng, Mingbo Wu or Wenting Wu.

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Fang, L., Xu, Q., Zheng, X. et al. Soy flour-derived carbon dots: facile preparation, fluorescence enhancement, and sensitive Fe3+ detection. J Nanopart Res 18, 224 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3521-z

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