Abstract

Sensing of acetone in aqueous solution is important for both environmental and medical applications. However, current probes suffer from low sensitivity and a slow response. In this work, carbon nanodots (CNDs) derived from β-Lactoglobulin were developed for highly sensitive detection of aqueous acetone. The CNDs possessed both spectral matching and surface recognition sites toward acetone. Selective fluorescent quenching of the CNDs by acetone was realized via inner filter effect. Moreover, photoinduced electron transfer from the CNDs to acetone further contributed to the suppressing of the fluorescent signal. The synergistic effect of electron and energy transfer resulted in high sensitivity of the CNDs probe, the limit of detection reached as low as 0.5 μM. The unique ultraviolet emission and tunable surface amino groups of the CNDs were responsible for their superior sensing performance.

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