Polyamine-functionalized carbon nanodots: a novel chemiluminescence probe for selective detection of iron(III) ions

We firstly studied the chemiluminescence behavior of branched poly(ethylenimine)-functionalized carbon dots (BPEI-CDs). The results demonstrated that BPEI-CDs can be used as a novel chemiluminescence probe in alkaline solution for rapid detection of iron(III) ions with high sensitivity and selectivity. A possible CL mechanism was studied by UV-Vis, fluorescence, CL, FTIR, XPS and EPR spectroscopy. Iron(III) could be selectively captured by the surface functional groups of BPEI and injected holes into the carbon dots which resulted in a great improvement of the BPEI-CDs' CL signal in alkaline solution. The work sheds new light on the characteristics and further application of functionalized carbon dots.