Sustainable synthesis of bright green fluorescent carbon quantum dots from lignin for highly sensitive detection of Fe3+ ions

Biomass transformation into high-value carbon nanomaterials plays a dual role of easing the energy material crisis and reasonable disposal of waste. Here, we employed biomass lignin as carbon source to synthesize fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) through a facile two-step method. The preparation condition is optimized at 0.3 g of acid additive and 200 degrees C, 16 h of hydrothermal treatment. The resultant CQDs with the average diameter of 4.86 nm and high quantum yield of 23.68% are composed of carbon cores and surface functional groups, exhibiting the maximum green emission wavelength of 476 nm. The formation mechanism involves acid dissociation of lignin in the first step, and then the aromatic refusion of lignin fragments. The CQDs show great advantages as fluorescent nanoprobe for metal ion detection, which present an apparent and selective fluorescence quenching effect on Fe3+. This CQD nanoprobe has a highly sensitive response to Fe3+ ions in the concentration of 0 similar to 300 mu M with detection limit of 0.77 mu M. The utilization of renewable biomass lignin in this study not only opens the avenue of the sustainable, cost-effective and mass production of CQDs, but also provides a novel alternative nanoprobe for sensing field.

Automated summary

This study utilized biomass lignin to synthesize carbon quantum dots with excellent fluorescence properties, serving as fluorescent nanoprobe for metal ion detection. The use of renewable biomass not only enables sustainable, cost-effective, and mass production of CQDs, but also provides a novel alternative nanoprobe for sensing applications.