Fluorescence turn-off sensing of lead and gentamicin based on phosphorus and chlorine co-doped carbon dots

Abstract

In the present study, CQDs co-doped with phosphorus and chlorine have been synthesized by a hydrothermal technique. The synthesized CQDs possess a mean size of <20 nm and show excitation-independent features. The investigations presented that the CQD’s fluorescence intensity was markedly quenched in the presence Pb2+ due to the formation of a stable non-luminescent complex that regarding this mechanism, a fluorescent platform was offered for Pb2+ ions in water samples. Furthermore, the gentamicin adding into the P, Cl-CQDs + Pb system had a more quenching effect on CQD’s fluorescence and so another probe was proposed for gentamicin determination. The detection limits for the proposed methods were 0.001 µg.mL−1 for Pb2+and 0.003 µg.mL−1 for gentamicin, respectively. The probe was successfully utilized in the environmental samples with high accuracy and selectivity.