Synthesis of nitrogen-doped fluorescent carbon dots for determination of nickel ions and morin from aqueous solution simultaneously

Considering the significant impact of heavy metals on environment and food safety inspection in trace determination, the orange photoluminescent carbon dots (O-CDs) was innovative designed by promoting the co-hydrothermal reaction of polyethyleneimine and resazurin. The produced O-CDs exhibit exceptional optical performance, advantageous water solubility and outstanding photostability. It is worth emphasizing that the proposed O-CDs has significant advantages in constructing sequential sensing platform for sensitive determination of Ni 2+ and morin. Simultaneous taking Ni 2+ for analytes and fluorescence quenching agents on the O-CDs sensing platforms, a good linear relationship can be received in the range of 5–50 μM with satisfactory sensitivity. Subsequently, morin can effectively promote the fluorescence recovery of O-CDs@Ni 2+ on account of stronger binding force between morin and Ni 2+ . Based on the above results, effective recovery of 97.26 %-100.90 % and 98.24 %-101.99 % is observed towards nickel ion and morin in real food samples. These findings provide an original strategy for the construction of long-wavelength emission carbon dots, which provides a pathway for the determination of typical pollutants based on efficient and robust nanosensors in the field of food safety.