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Red emitting and highly stable carbon dots with dual response to pH values and ferric ions

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Abstract

The authors describe strongly red-emitting carbon dots (CDs) which were obtained via microwave synthesis using phenylenediamine as the carbon source. The structural and optical properties of the resultant CDs are studied in some detail. The CDs possess (a) longwave emission (peaking at 620 nm under 470 nm excitation), (b) a quantum yield of ~15%, (c) a size of typically 3.8 nm; and (d) good photostability. The CDs have a pH-dependet response that covers the pH 5 to 10 range, and their fluorescence is quenched by ferric ions. The CDs can detect ferric ions in aqueous samples in the 0 to 30 μM concentration range with a lower detection limit of 15 nM. The CDs were also used to image pH values and ferric ions in E. coli bacteria.

The red-emitting carbon dots with high stability are synthesized which show dual response to pH-values and ferric ions in aqueous solution and biological media simultaneously.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51503085 51502115, and 21507139), open project of state key laboratory of supramolecular structure and materials (sklssm201724), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO.JUSRP11708).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of New Energy Technology, Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, People’s Republic of China

    Yuanqing Sun, Dingyi Tong, Chuanxi Wang & Minghui Yang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Science, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, People’s Republic of China

    Yuanqing Sun

  3. School of Chemical & Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaojie Wang, Chan Wang, Qian Wu & Kaili Jiang

  4. ChangChun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, 130117, China

    Yingnan Jiang

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  1. Yuanqing Sun
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  3. Chan Wang
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Correspondence to Chan Wang, Yingnan Jiang or Chuanxi Wang.

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Sun, Y., Wang, X., Wang, C. et al. Red emitting and highly stable carbon dots with dual response to pH values and ferric ions. Microchim Acta 185, 83 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2544-1

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