One Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis and Application of Bright-yellow-emissive Carbon Quantum Dots in Hg²⁺ Detection

Carbon quantum dots (CQD) have drawn great interest worldwide for their extensive application as sensors due to their extraordinary physical and chemical characteristics, good biocompatibility, and high fluorescence in nature. Here, we demonstrate a technique for detecting mercury (Hg²⁺) ion using a fluorescent CQD probe. Ecology is concerned about the accumulation of heavy metal ions in water samples due to their harmful effects on human health. Sensitive identification and removal of metal ions from water samples are required to reduce heavy metals' risk. To find out Mercury in the water sample, carbon quantum dots were used and synthesized by 5-dimethyl amino methyl furfuryl alcohol and o-phenylene diamine through the hydrothermal technique. The synthesized CQD shows yellow emission when exposed to UV irradiation. Mercury ion was used to quench carbon quantum dots, and it was found that the detection limit was 5.2 nM with a linear range of 15-100 µM. The synthesized carbon quantum dots were demonstrated to efficiently detect Mercury ions in real water samples.