Carbon dots with aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) for detection of Zr4+/ Hf4+ and PTP1B activity

Abstract

The frequent use of Zirconium (Zr) and Hafnium (Hf) in modern industries may result in serious environment issues, and thus developing analytical methods to facilitate the control of these two resembled metal elements is urgently needed. However, up to now, rapidly and conveniently detecting Zr⁴⁺ and Hf⁴⁺ is still full of challenge. In this study, nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon dots (N, S-Cdots) with aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) were prepared and used for turn-on detection of Zr⁴⁺ and Hf⁴⁺ within 10 min. The photoluminescent intensity of N, S-Cdots showed a good linear correlation with Zr⁴⁺ and Hf⁴⁺concentrations ranging from 0 to 30 μM with the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.47 and 0.53 μM, respectively. Furthermore, this fluorometric assay was successfully used for quantitative analysis of Zr⁴⁺ and Hf⁴⁺ in real water samples with satisfactory recoveries in the range of 91.16-108.50% and 90.28-106.49%, respectively. Finally, the developed N, S-Cdots sensing system was used for assay PTP1B activity and screening its inhibitor with Zr⁴⁺ as the medium. Our work demonstrated that the as-prepared N, S-Cdots with AIEE can offer a simple and reliable alternative for rapid detection of Zr⁴⁺ and Hf⁴⁺ in water samples, in addition to being potential useful in phosphatase analysis and drug discovery.

Keywords: Aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE); Carbon dots; Hf(4+); PTP1B; Zr(4+).