Highly fluorescent carbon quantum dots as nanoprobes for sensitive and selective determination of mercury (II) in surface waters

A novel carbon quantum dots (CQDs) was successfully prepared through one-step green hydrothermal method using polyacrylamide as carbon source. The prepared CQDs were characterized using TEM, XRD, XPS, FT-IR, UV-Vis, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The CQDS was demonstrated as nanoprobes for mercury ion detection, moreover, it demonstrated excitation-dependent and superior stability in acidic and alkaline media. Besides, the probe exhibited a good linearity range (0.25-50 mu M) and a low detection limit (13.48 nM). These attractive properties indicated that this novel CQDS can adapt to a variety of complex pH environment, which had extensive prospect and promising application for detection of mercury ions in complex water samples. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.