Abstract: We on report an eco-friendly molecularly imprinted material based on carbon dots (C-dots) via a facile and efficient sol-gel polymerization for selective fluorescence detection of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP). The amino-modified C-dots were firstly synthesized by a hydrothermal process using citric acid as the carbon source and poly(ethyleneimine) as the surface modifier, and then after a sol-gel molecular imprinting process, the molecularly imprinted fluorescence material was obtained. The material (MIP-C-dots) showed strong fluorescence from C-dots and high selectivity due to the presence of a molecular imprint. After the detection conditions were optimized, the relative fluorescence intensity (F0/F) of MIP-C-dots presented a good linearity with 4-NP concentrations in the linear range of 0.2 - 50 μmol L-1 with a detection limit (3σ/k) of 0.06 μmol L-1. In addition, the correlation coefficient was 0.9978 and the imprinting factor was 2.76. The method was applicable to the determination of trace 4-NP in Yangtze River water samples and good recoveries from 92.6-107.3 % were obtained. The present study provides a general strategy to fabricate materials based on C-dots with good fluorescence property for selective fluorescence detection of organic pollutants
Template and target information: 4-nitrophenol, 4-NP
Author keywords: molecular imprinting, sol-gel, Eco-friendly material, Quenching, Stern-Volmer plot, selective recognition