A red fluorescent carbon dots with good water solubility for rapid detection of Al3+ in actual samples

Abstract We developed a facile strategy for the fabrication of red fluorescent carbon nanodots (R‐CDs) and demonstrated their applications for Al 3+ sensing. Red‐emission carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized using a simple hydrothermal treatment with citric acid and urea as precursors, manifesting intriguing red‐emission behaviour at 610 nm. With increasing Al 3+ concentration, the fluorescence band at 610 nm decreased gradually. Monitoring the intrinsic fluorescence variation (I 610nm ), as‐prepared CDs were developed as an effective platform for fluorescent Al 3+ sensing, with a linear range of 0.5–60.0 μM and a detection limit of 3.0 nM. More importantly, R‐CDs have been applied successfully to the analysis of Al 3+ in actual samples with satisfactory recoveries in the range 97.12–102.05%, which indicated that obtained CDs could be implemented as an effective tool for the identification and detection of Al 3+ in actual samples.