N-dots as a photoluminescent probe for the rapid and selective detection of Hg2+ and Ag+ in aqueous solution

Zhisheng Wu; Mengke Feng; Xiuxian Chen; Xinjing Tang

doi:10.1039/c5tb02628h

N-dots as a photoluminescent probe for the rapid and selective detection of Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ in aqueous solution

J Mater Chem B. 2016 Mar 28;4(12):2086-2089. doi: 10.1039/c5tb02628h. Epub 2016 Mar 7.

Authors

Zhisheng Wu¹, Mengke Feng, Xiuxian Chen, Xinjing Tang

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, No. 38, Xueyuan Rd., Beijing 100191, China. xinjingt@bjmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 32263175
DOI: 10.1039/c5tb02628h

Abstract

Green fluorescent nitrogen-rich quantum dots (N-dots) have been synthesized under mild conditions (50 °C in methanol) and applied as a turn-off chemosensor for the rapid and selective detection of Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ in aqueous solutions. Distinguishing between Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ was also successfully achieved simply through the addition of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). These N-dots-Hg and N-dots-Ag could also be used as turn-on chemosensors for biothiols through their binding competition for Hg²⁺ and Ag⁺ with N-dots.