One-step synthesized fluorescent nitrogen doped carbon dots from thymidine for Cr (VI) detection in water.

A novel, simple and low-cost nitrogen doped carbon dots (N-CDs) fluorescent sensor for sensitive detection of Cr (VI) was developed via one-step hydrothermal method using thymidine as carbon source. As-prepared N-CDs exhibited the ability of sensitive and selective detection of Cr (VI) through the inner filter effect (IFE). The performances of N-CDs were investigated with the characterization methods of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Under the optimized conditions, a good logarithm correlation between the fluorescence intensity of N-CDS and the concentration of Cr (VI) was obtained ranging from 0.1 µM to 430 µM (R2 = 0.992), with a low detection limit (LOD; S/N = 3) of 1.26 nM. The fluorescent sensor showed good repeatability, reproducibility and stability. Furthermore, N-CDs fluorescent sensor had a good applicability for Cr (VI) detection in real water samples with acceptable recoveries, and the detection results were consistent with the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) results, indicating this fluorescent sensor has a great potential for the environmental monitoring.