One-Step Synthesis of Nitrogen and Chlorine Co-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Detection of Fe3+

An environment friendly, economic and maneuverable hydrothermal method was proposed for fabrication of nitrogen and chlorine co-doped carbon quantum dots (N,Cl-CQDs). D-Glucosamine hydrochloride as the only precursor offered source of carbon, nitrogen and chlorine. As a consequent N,Cl-CQDs can emit blue luminescence and detect Fe[Formula: see text] by fluorescence response with high selectivity and sensitivity. There is a linear semilogarithmic correlation between the quenching efficiency [Formula: see text] and the concentration of Fe[Formula: see text] with a detection limit of 0.167 [Formula: see text]M. The N,Cl-CQDs exhibit a high quantum yield of 16.8% along with the fluorescence lifetime of 2.2[Formula: see text]ns. It is worth noting that the prepared N,Cl-CQDs show excellent biocompatibility and they are promising materials for sensing and biology.