An efficient designing of nitrogen decorated carbon quantum dots as Fe fluorescent probe: On account of binary carbon source system

Accurate detection of Fe 3+ is an urgent need due rapid increase of hemochromatosis, methemoglobinemia, mental decline and physical weakness throughout the world. Here, nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQDs) having blue fluorescence were prepared by facile one-spot hydrothermal method by using binary carbon source. This innovative primed hybrid NCQDs were well characterized by using FT-IR, XPS , and EDS and SEM for purpose of chemical composition and surface functionality. The morphology of NCQDs were confirmed their spherical shape and an average diameter was 4.3 nm by TEM measurement. Surface coating for functional group and nitrogen doped was monitored by the FTIR, XPS and EDX analysis. The photoluminescence measurements showed that NCQDs were non-wavelength dependent with a quantum yield of 73.89%. The NCQDs showed strong evidence to be a excellent fluorescent sensor for the rapid and quick estimation of Fe 3+ with high selectivity and sensitivity. The fluorescence power of NCQDs were slowly declined with higher amount of Fe 3+ concentration ranging from 0.01 to 0.5 and 1–33.3 μM. The accurate range of detection limit was very narrow and found to be 5 nM for Fe 3+ by this method. Furthermore, the function of novel NCQDs for estimation of trace element such as Fe 3+ in different sources of water was yielded at very acceptable recoveries (97.30% ∼ 98.04%). The current designed functional probe provided a promising fluorescent range at narrow level for the Fe 3+ detection is highly appreciable in the future studies.