Continuous Hydrothermal Flow Synthesis of Blue-Luminescent, Excitation-Independent Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots as Nanosensors

Journal article

Baragau, I-A., Power, N., Morgan, D., Heil, T., Lobo, R., Roberts, C., Titirici, M.M., Dunn, S. and Kellici, S. (2020). Continuous Hydrothermal Flow Synthesis of Blue-Luminescent, Excitation-Independent Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots as Nanosensors. Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
AuthorsBaragau, I-A., Power, N., Morgan, D., Heil, T., Lobo, R., Roberts, C., Titirici, M.M., Dunn, S. and Kellici, S.
Abstract

Blue-luminescent N-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) exhibiting rarely observed excitation independent optical properties are synthesised from citric acid in the presence of ammonia via a Continuous Hydrothermal Flow Synthesis (CHFS) approach. CHFS is an eco-friendly, rapid synthetic approach (within fractions of a second) facilitating ease of scale-up industrialization as well as offering materials with superior properties. The synthesised CQDs readily disperse in aqueous solution, have an average particle size of 3.3 ± 0.7 nm, with highest emission intensity at 441 nm (and a narrow full width at half maximum, FWHM ~78 nm) under a 360 nm excitation wavelength. Carbon quantum dots, without any further modification, exhibited a high selectivity and sensitivity as a nano-sensor for the highly toxic and carcinogenic chromium(VI) ions. The nano-chemo-sensor delivers significant advantages including simplicity of manufacturing via a continuous, cleaner technology (using targeted biomass precursor), high selectivity, sensitivity and fast response leading to potential applications in environmental industry as well photovoltaics, bio-tagging, bio-sensing and beyond.

Keywordscarbon quantum dots; continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis; chromium (VI) sensing
Year2020
JournalJournal of Materials Chemistry A
PublisherRoyal Society of Chemistry
ISSN2050-7488
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)doi:https://www.doi.org/10.1039/C9TA11781D
Publication dates
Online10 Jan 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted10 Jan 2020
Deposited14 Jan 2020
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