Green Emission Carbon Nanodots as Fluorescence Turn-on Probe for Detecting Picolinic Acid

• Published in: Journal of analytical chemistry (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 76; no. 8; pp. 920 - 929
• Main Authors: Ding, Yu-Jie, Jin, Xing, Wang, Zhong-Xia, Wang, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.08.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acids; Analytical Chemistry; Boric acid; Boron; Carbon; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Copper; Electron transfer; Electron transport; Emission spectra; Fluorescence; Hydroquinone; Investigations; Reagents; Uric acid; carbon nanodots; picolinic acid; sensor; photoluminescence; Cu(II)
• DOI: 10.1134/S1061934821080037
• ISSN: 1061-9348

A new strategy for the determination of picolinic acid ( PLA ) is developed by utilizing green-emissive boron and nitrogen co-doped carbon nanodots ( BNCNDs ) and Cu 2+ ion. Hydroquinone, uric acid and boric acid act as carbon, nitrogen and boron sources for BNCNDs synthesis, respectively. Interestingly, the green emission of BNCNDs is quenched in the presence of Cu 2+ by electron transfer. Upon addition of the specific reagent ( PLA ), Cu 2+ ion is removed from the surface of BNCNDs owing to the formation of a strong complex between PLA and Cu 2+ ion, which leads to a significant fluorescence recovery of BNCNDs. The “turn-on” phenomenon allows to determine PLA by a very simple method. This chemosensing method displays a linear range from 50 nM to 80 μM with a detection limit of 14 nM (3σ/ k ) for PLA. The method was applied to the determination of PLA in fetal bovine serum samples with the recoveries between 94 and 106%, which shows that this method has potential for use in applications to real samples.