Carbon-dot-encapsulated molecularly imprinted mesoporous organosilica for fluorescent sensing of rhodamine 6G

A highly sensitive molecularly imprinted fluorescent sensor for rhodamine 6G (R6G) was fabricated using carbon dot (CD)-embedded mesoporous organosilica as scaffold through a one-pot self-assembly process. The embedded CDs and R6G exhibit efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) due to the overlap between the emission band of energy donor CDs and the excitation band of energy acceptor R6G, as well as their nanometer-sized distance. After acid treatment, molecularly imprinted silica for recognition of R6G with excellent performance in terms of sensitivity and selectivity was obtained, being attributed to the FRET effect between CDs and R6G and the spatial recognition ability for R6G.