A facile one step hydrothermal synthesis of carbon quantum dots for label -free fluorescence sensing approach to detect picric acid in aqueous solution

In this work, a facile one step approach has been applied for the synthesis of nitrogen and sulphur co-doped water soluble carbon quantum dots (NS-CQDs) through hydrothermal treatment of L-Lysine and thiourea. The obtained NS-CQDs have a high quantum yield (QY) of 53.19 % and emit strong blue fluorescence under UV light excitation of wavelength 365 nm. The morphology of NS-CQDs is spherical in shape and their sizes are distributed in the range 5–8 nm with average diameter 6.86 nm. Moreover the NS-CQDs show excitation dependent emission behavior due to quantum confinement effect. Additionally, NS-CQDs serve as a fluorescent probe for the selective and sensitive detection of picric acid (PA) in aqueous solution. A good linear response to PA in the concentration range 1–10 μM with a detection limit 0.24 μM has been obtained. The high selectivity of PA by NS-CQDs is suggested to arise from fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) mechanism. Finally these NS-CQDs fluorescent probes have been examined in real water sample by measuring the concentration of PA in tap water.