Simple and sensitive fluorescence sensing of methyl parathion based on the inner filter effect of p-nitrophenol on nitrogen-doped titanium carbide quantum dots

It is of great significance to develop an effective method for methyl parathion (MP) detection. Herein, a novel nitrogen-doped titanium carbide quantum dots (N-Ti 3 C 2 QDs) was prepared and used to construct a simple and sensitive fluorescence sensing platform of MP by making use of inner filter effect (IFE). The prepared N-Ti 3 C 2 QDs can exhibit strong blue fluorescence at 434 nm. Meanwhile, MP could hydrolyze to produce p -nitrophenol (p-NP) under alkaline conditions, which showed a characteristic ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible) absorption peak at 405 nm, resulting in the fluorescence of N-Ti 3 C 2 QDs is effectively quenched by p-NP. In addition, the investigation of time-resolved fluorescence decays indicated that the corresponding quenching mechanism of p-NP on N-Ti 3 C 2 QDs is due to the IFE. After optimizing the conditions, the as-developed fluorescence sensing platform displayed wide detection range (0.1–30 μg mL −1 ) and low detection limit (0.036 μg mL −1 ) for MP, and it was also successfully applied for MP analysis in real water samples, thus it is expected that this simple, sensitive and enzyme-free sensing platform shows great applications.