A novel fluorescence assay based on self-doping biomass carbon dots for rapid detection of dimethoate

A novel approach was proposed to prepare carbon dots (CDs) by acid carbonization and hydrothermal treatment of pork rib bones from food waste. The synthesized animal waste biomass CDs have the merits of eco-friendly, superior fluorescence properties and biocompatibility. The fluorescence of animal waste biomass CDs could be quenched efficiently by dithizone due to the coordination effect. With the addition of dimethoate, the dithizone ligands at CDs are replaced by hydrolysates, and hence the fluorescence is recovered. Thus, a sensing platform was constructed based on the coordination-originated fluorescence of animal waste biomass CDs which can sensitively and selectively detect dimethoate due to a simple displacement mechanism. Upon optimal conditions, the detection limit of dimethoate is 0.064 μM. The linear ranges were obtained in a range of 0.15 μM–5.0 μM. The method is rapid, convenient and environmentally acceptable that can directly detect dimethoate in water samples with recoveries of 93 %–105 %, and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 2 %–6 %, respectively. This simple strategy can be used to develop the fluorescence recovery sensors for chemical detection.