Environment friendly Co/Ag@ZnS quantum dots with high quality emission and application for selective sensing of Hg2+

Mercury (Hg), being a highly toxic environmental contaminant, poses serious ecological and health problems even at low quantities. Accurate and sensitive methods for detecting Hg2+ ions in environment are desperately needed. Also, the production of red emissive nanophosphors with outstanding color purity is a critical requirement for the next-generation display systems and lighting industry. A red emitting Co/Ag@ZnS QDs phosphor were prepared and studied to enhance the color characteristics of warm white light emitting diodes. The phosphors are synthesized using a co-precipitation technique, and the evolution of emission spectra are examined by the addition of dopants, significantly increasing PL QY up to 27.6%. A highly sensitive fluorescence sensor has been fabricated for Hg2+ detection using a quenching mechanism that has an excellent linear range of 0-50 & mu;M, a correlation coefficient of 0.989, and a detection limit of 0.13 & mu;M. More crucially, the proposed fluorescence sensing platform successfully and satisfactory detects Hg2+ in real water samples. These phosphors, which exhibit impressive CIE chromaticity coordinates, good CCT values, and high color purity (91.1%) may find substantial use in displays and demonstrate their effectiveness as red phosphors.

Automated summary

Mercury (Hg) is a highly toxic environmental contaminant that can cause serious ecological and health problems even at low concentrations. There is an urgent need for accurate and sensitive methods to detect Hg2+ ions in the environment. Additionally, the production of red emissive nanophosphors with excellent color purity is crucial for next-generation display systems and the lighting industry.