Fluorescent Willow Leaves-Based Carbon Dots as High-Efficiency Probe for Trinitrophenol Detection

In terms of the superior performance of biomass carbon dots (CDs) and the great importance of trinitrophenol (PA) detection, CDs derived from willow leaves in aqueous solution were synthesized through a hydrothermal method at 180°C for 6 h. The spherical CDs were uniformly dispersed with an average size of about 3.1 nm. Combined with different characterization results, the CDs possessed multiple functional groups that were beneficial for fluorescence recognition effects. The stable CDs emitted blue fluorescence around 448 nm under an excitation wavelength of 376 nm. Encouraged by static quenching and the inner filter effect, the CDs displayed noticeable sensitivity and selectivity toward PA measurement with a linear range of 0.5-200 μM. More importantly, the CDs displayed satisfactory recoveries (96.97%-103.33%) and low RSD values (< 4%) for PA detection in real samples.