Highly fluorescence Ta4C3 MXene quantum dots as fluorescent nanoprobe for heavy ion detection and stress monitoring of fluorescent hydrogels

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Compared with other transition metal Mxene derived quantum dots (MQDS), Ta-based Mxene quantum dots have good functionality, but Ta-based Mxene quantum dots and their applications have not been studied so far. In this paper, we report for the first time the synthesis of high fluorescence quantum yield (QY) N-doped Ta4C3 quantum dots (N-MQDs) using Ta4C3 quantum dots in acid reflux damaged Ta4C3 nanosheets as precursors and ethylenediamine as nitrogen source. The prepared N-MQDs have excellent blue photoluminescence (PL) properties, particle size is only 2.60 nm, QY is up to 23.4%, and good stability. In addition, it has been reported that N-MQDs can be used as fluorescent probe for detection of Fe3+ and remote force sensing analysis In liquid ion sensing, N-MQDS shows a unique selective quenching of Fe3+ with a detection limit as low as 2 µmol/L, and has great potential as a fast and super-sensitive fluorescent probe for the detection of heavy ion. More importantly, in solid mechanics sensing, the introduction of N-MQDs into self-healing hydrogels can be developed into a fluorescent hydrogel that can be used for accurate remote force measurement and applied in the field of mechanical sensing analysis. Therefore, Ta-based N-MQDs show excellent potential in the field of fluorescence sensing, which provides a door for multi-dimensional sensing of new materials in the future.