Green Hydrothermal Synthesis of N-doped Carbon Dots from Biomass Highland Barley for the Detection of Hg²⁺

• Main Authors: Yadian Xie, Dandan Cheng, Xingliang Liu, Aixia Han
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: N-doped carbon dots; hydrothermal method; biomass; highland barley; Hg²⁺ ion
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/19/14/3169

Totally water-soluble N-doped Carbon dots (N-CDs) were synthesized by a green hydrothermal method from biomass using Highland barley as a carbon source and ethanediamine as nitrogen source. TEM and XRD showed the graphitic amorphous structure and narrow diameter distribution of these N-CDs. N-doping to the crystal lattice and carrying many hydrophilic groups on the surface of N-CDs were verified by XPS and FT-IR. The as-synthesized N-CDs emitted strong blue fluorescence at 480 nm and owned a relatively high quantum yield of 14.4%. The product also could sensitively and selectively detect Hg²⁺ ions in the range of 10−160 μM and the limit of detection was equal to 0.48 μM.