Presently, the doping of nano-carbons with the heteroatoms and metal-salts as an external dopant is a common practice for articulating the optical applicative efficiency especially of the carbon dots (CD). The ease in the fabrications of the self-doped CD could be a taken as a sustainable approach, ...
Presently, the doping of nano-carbons with the heteroatoms and metal-salts as an external dopant is a common practice for articulating the optical applicative efficiency especially of the carbon dots (CD). The ease in the fabrications of the self-doped CD could be a taken as a sustainable approach, where the additions of the external dopant material can either be avoided or minimized. It may refer to the use of biomaterials like plant leaves, as they already possessed the metals inside as an essential element. A simpler process of the carbonization of leave extract can yield the red emitting magnesium-nitrogen embedded (self-doped) CD as “r-Mg-N-CD” possessing the quantum yield value of ~ 41 %. Importantly, r-Mg-N-CD were proven to be a biocompatible probe concerning its nontoxic behavior based on the bacteriological test performed on the two different bacterial strains; Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Proteus vulgaris (P.vulgaris). In addition to the conventional imaging application, these r-Mg-N-CD can also be used for the fluorescence-based selective sensing of Cu (II) metal ion out of many tested heavy metals with the detection limit as low as 50 nM and also as red-emitting fluorescent ink.
The reported finding shows a simpler way for the synthesis of the red emitting self-doped r-Mg-N-CD via the utilization of biomaterials as the leaves in an economical (without using any external reagent) method. The as produced red emitting r-Mg-N-CD showed the high quantum yield values. Based on the bacteriological test, r-Mg-N-CD are nontoxic on the two different types of bacterial strains: E. coli and P. vulgaris and being used for the imaging of these cells. As well as, these red emitting r-Mg-N-CD is further being used for fluorescence based selective sensing of Cu(II) metal ion out of many tested different metal ions Ba(II), Sr(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Bi(II), Hg(II), Al(III), and Cr(VI) in the aqueous solution with LOD in the range of nano molar. Along with these, r-Mg-N-CD can be also used as a red-emitting biocompatible fluorescent ink.
