Abstract:
The exponential growth in the research field of
water pollution control demands the evolution of novel
sensing materials for regulation and quantification of
metals ions. Within this context, the current work reports a
new strategy for the synthesis of carbon dots from the
hydrothermal treatment of organic nanoparticles. The
organic nanoparticles are found to be selective towards Cs
(I) ions with a detection limit of 5.3 nM, whereas the highly
fluorescent carbon dots are found to be selective towards
Ag(I) ions with a detection limit of 4.8 nM. Both sensing
systems illustrate rapid sensing with a working pH range
from 4–9. The interfacial molecular restructuring of the
sensing systems in the aqueous phase has been investigated in the absence and presence of targeted metal ions
using a sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopic
tool. The practical applicability of the sensors was checked
in environmental samples. This work opens new avenues
for the exploration of temperature-guided sensing modulation in nanomaterials.
