Mesoporous silica nanoparticles encapsulated carbon quantum dots for detection of tetracycline

In this paper, a novel and selective fluorescent probe for nanocomposite materials were developed by in situ growth carbon quantum dots (CQDs) in the channel of mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) for the detection of tetracycline (TC). The CQDs@MSNs nanocomposites were prepared via a facile hydrothermal method. The CQDs incorporated into MSNs can act as the low-toxicity and stable fluorescent probes for the detection of TC. Under optimal conditions, a fluorescence emission peak at 439 nm was observed for the CQDs@MSNs when the excitation wavelength was set as 360 nm, and the fluorescence peak intensity can be gradually quenched by TC via inner filter effect, a good linear relationship between the concentration of TC from 0 to 100 μM, and the fluorescence quenching intensity of CQDs@MSNs was obtained, with a limit detection of 5.19 μM. More importantly, the CQDs@MSNs have been successfully used for TC determination in real samples.