Carbon quantum dots prepared with polyethyleneimine as both reducing agent and stabilizer for synthesis of Ag/CQDs composite for Hg2+ ions detection

A stable silver nanoparticles/carbon quantum dots (Ag/CQDs) composite was prepared by using CQDs as reducing and stabilizing agent. The CQDs synthesized with polyethyleneimine (PEI) showed an extraordinary reducibility. When Hg2+ was presented in the Ag/CQDs composite solution, a color change from yellow to colorless was observed, accompanied by a shift of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band and decrease in absorbance of the Ag/CQDs composite. On the basis of the further studies on TEM, XPS and XRD analysis, the possible mechanism is attributed to the formation of a silver-mercury amalgam. Hence, a two dimensional sensing platform for Hg2+ detection was constructed upon the Ag/CQDs composite. Based on the change of absorbance, a good linear relationship was obtained from 0.5 to 50μM for Hg2+. And the limit of detection for Hg2+ was as low as 85nM, representing high sensitivity to Hg2+. More importantly, the proposed method also exhibits a good selectivity toward Hg2+ over other metal ions. Besides, this strategy demonstrates practicability for the detection of Hg2+ in real water samples with satisfactory results.