Highly luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are developed as fluorescent probes for selective detection of the heavy-ion Fe3+, where the CQDs exhibit excellent nontoxicity, functionalizability, sensitivity, and selectivity. Biomass-based CQDs and nitrogen-doped CQDs (N-CQDs) are synthesized for the selective detection of Fe3+ by using H2O2 as an oxidant and polyetherimide (PEI) as a nitrogen precursor by a green hydrothermal synthesis method. The prepared CQDs and N-CQDs exhibit an elliptical morphology and with an average particle size of 7 and 4 nm, respectively, and emit blue photoluminescence at 445 and 468 nm under excitation at 367 and 343 nm, respectively. The CQDs and N-CQDs exhibit good water solubility because of the abundant hydroxyl and carboxyl/carbonyl groups and graphic/pyrrolic/pyridinic nitrogen on the surfaces, giving rise to a quantum yield of about 24.2% and 30.7%, respectively. Notably, the Matrimony vine-PEI-based CQDs exhibit excellent Fe3+ selectivity and sensitivity relative to the Matrimony vine-based CQDs due to complexation of the numerous phenolic hydroxyl groups and nitrogen-containing groups with Fe3+, leading to increased fluorescence quenching, which greatly improves the sensitivity of detection. The minimum detection limit was 2.22 μmol L− 1 with a complexation constant of 44.7.

Nitrogen-doped carbon dots (CDts) with tunable fluorescence properties in aqueous media were synthesized hydrothermally. The excitation wavelength variation to obtain the maximum emission produced a blue shift in the emission peaks upon dilution in an aqueous solution. The shift can be explained by a re-absorption phenomenon in a concentrated solution. The interparticle interaction within was responsible to show dilution-dependent optical behavior. The as-synthesized solution of CDts did not show any prominent absorption peak over a wide range. However, upon dilution, two peaks became predominant. The concentration-dependent behavior was observed during the interaction with metal cations. Cationic salts of Co(II) and Hg(II) caused quenching at different dilutions of CDts. This might be explained by the exposure of different surface functional groups during dilution and metal-ion–CDts charge transfer. The quenched fluorescence of CDts was rescued using ascorbic acid. Therefore, the one-pot detection of Co(II)/Hg(II) and ascorbic acid was designed through a ‘Turn Off/On’ phenomenon.

최근 오염물질 수위의 급격한 상승세와 더불어 가속화되는 자연환경 파괴로 인해 다양한 환경 속에 쌓이는 오염 물질의 검출 및 모니터링은 현대 사회의 중요한 미션 중 하나로 자리 잡았다. 본 논문에는 멤브레인 기반의 광학 센서를 활용한 미량 오염물질 검출에 대한 최근 연구 동향이 요약되어 있다. 본 논문에 포함된 연구들은 섬유소로 이루어진 멤브레인을 검출을 위한 플랫폼으로 사용하였으며, 금속 나노 입자나 형광단을 색 변화 검출을 위해 이용하였다. 제조된 광학 센서들은 모두 적절하거나 특출한 수준의 감도를 보였고, 대부분의 센서에서 타겟 물질이 아닌 이온이나 물질에는 반응하지 않는 정확성 또한 확인되었다. 검출 플랫폼으로 이용된 섬유소 멤브레인의 물리적, 화학적 특성들은 멤브레인 합성 방법이나 색 변화를 위한 광학 물질 등을 바꾸는 방법을 통해 각 연구의 목적에 맞추어 최적화될 수 있었다. 또한, 멤브레인을 기반으로 하여 제조 된 센서들은 운반이 편리하고 기계적 성질이 강해 현장에서 바로 오염물질을 검출할 수도 있다는 사실이 제시되었다. 이러한 장점 덕분에 멤브레인 기반 센서들은 식용수에서 검출된 중금속의 정량화와 자연 수질환경에서 발견되는 미량 중금속 및 유독성 항생제의 감지 등 다양한 목적을 위해 활용될 수 있었다. 몇몇의 연구에서 제조된 센서들은 항균성이나 재활용성 또한 나타내었다. 대부분의 센서들이 타겟 물질을 감지한 후 육안으로도 식별 가능한 색 변화를 보였으나, 본 논문에 포함된 많은 연구들은 형광 발산, UV-vis 분광학, RGB 색 강도 차이 등을 비교 분석한 더 상세한 검출 결과를 제시하였다.

A novel method for the detection of hydrogen peroxide in aqueous solution was developed via reaction between H2O2, trivalent titanium ion (Ti3+) and 4-(2-thiazolylazo) resorcinol (TAR), resulting in a ternary complex with a maximum UV absorbance at 530 nm. The CE detection of H2O2 was fast, sensitive and cost-effective without pretreatment procedures. H2O2 was detected within 15 min at 1 to 100 μM range with the lowest detection limit at 1.0 μM. Under the optimized CE conditions, the concentration of H2O2 in coffee or tea extract was quantitatively determined. Our results show that CE detection of the ternary complex of H2O2-Ti3+-TAR has potential applications for the detection of H2O2 in aqueous sources.