Cost-effective and facile fluorescent probes for label-free recognition of chlorpromazine hydrochloride and logic gate operation

Abstract

Herein, water-soluble nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-CDs) possessing strong blue fluorescence were synthesized by one-step hydrothermal treatment using citric acid monohydrate(CA)and semicarbazide hydrochloride with NaOH as solvent. What's important in this article is that the N-CDs interacted with chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPH), leading to the quenching of strong fluorescence. Based on the above phenomenon, a “switch-off” fluorescent probe with excellent sensitivity and superior selectivity was designed for specifically detecting CPH, and an “AND” logic gate for sensing CPH was first proposed. In this system, two linear ranges of 7.5–100.0 μM and 100.0–1000.0 μM CPH could be easily tracked, and a 0.043 μM detection limit was available. Additionally, the as-constructed sensor was conditioned for CPH determination in spiked human urine with satisfactory results, proving this is a potential and promising strategy for rapid screening of CPH in biological fluids. According to what we know, it is the first research regarding the use of CDs without any material decoration as probes to test CPH, which opens up the optical path for CPH detection.