One-Step Synthesis of Nitrogen and Chlorine Co-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Detection of Fe3+

An environment friendly, economic and maneuverable hydrothermal method was proposed for fabrication of nitrogen and chlorine co-doped carbon quantum dots (N, Cl-CQDs). D-Glucosamine hydrochloride as the only precursor offered source of carbon, nitrogen and chlorine. As a consequent N, Cl-CQDs can emit blue luminescence and detect Fe3+ by fluorescence response with high selectivity and sensitivity. There is a linear semilogarithmic correlation between the quenching efficiency F-0/F and the concentration of Fe3+ with a detection limit of 0.167 mu M. The N, Cl-CQDs exhibit a high quantum yield of 16.8% along with the fluorescence lifetime of 2.2 ns. It is worth noting that the prepared N, Cl-CQDs show excellent biocompatibility and they are promising materials for sensing and biology.