Carbon-dot-based dual-emission silica nanoparticles as a ratiometric fluorescent probe for vanadium(V) detection in mineral water samples

Herein, we propose a simple and effective strategy for designing a ratiometric fluorescent nanosensor. We designed and developed a carbon dots (CDs) based dual-emission nanosensor for vanadium(V) by coating the surface of dye-doped silica nanoparticles with CDs. The fluorescence of dual-emission silica nanoparticles was quenched in acetic acid through potassium bromate (KBrO 3 ) oxidation. V(V) could catalyze KBrO 3 oxidation reaction process, resulting in the ratiometric fluorescence quenching of dual-emission silica nanoparticles. We investigated several important parameters affecting the performance of the nanosensor. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limit of this nanosensor reached 1.1   ng   mL −   1 and the linear range from 10 to 800   ng   mL −   1 . Furthermore, we found that the sensor was suitable for determination of V(V) in different mineral water samples with satisfactory results.