Environmentally friendly cleaner water-soluble fluorescent carbon dots coated with chitosan: synthesis and its application for sensitivity determination of Cr(VI) ions

In the current work, novel environmentally friendly water-soluble fluorescent carbon dots coated with chitosan (CDs/CTS) were successively synthesized via a facile and green preparation procedure. The fluorescent carbon dots were prepared through a simple, convenient and one-step hydrothermal method in the presence of cellulose as a raw material. The CDs/CTS were connected together via intermolecular hydrogen bonds interaction and chemical bonds between hydroxyl and amino groups in the chitosan polymeric chains and hydroxyl groups of fluorescent carbon dots. This approach can be applied for milligram-scale preparation of these water-soluble particles. The CDs/CTS material showed blue fluorescence under UV exposure. The structure and morphology of as-prepared CDs/CTS were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The as-prepared CDs/CTS exhibited excellent fluorescent property and good stability. The fluorescence of as-prepared CDs/CTS could be quenched by the Cr(VI) ions. The effects of environmental factors on the fluorescence intensity were investigated in detail, and the obtained results showed that the optimum conditions for the Cr(VI) ions determination were as follows: 1:3 of mass ratio of CDs/CTS, 9.5 of pH and 20 min of reaction time. Under optimized experimental conditions, a novel fluorescent probe was developed for the detection of Cr(VI) ions, which exhibited wide linear ranges (0–600 μmol/L) and excellent selectivity. The proposed method was directly applied for the determination of Cr(VI) ions in water and soil samples with satisfactory results.