TY - JOUR

T1 - Turning Agroforestry Waste into Value-Added Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots for Effective Detection of Fe3+in an Aqueous Environment

AU - Ren, Haitao

AU - Qi, Fan

AU - Labidi, Abdelkader

AU - Allam, Ahmed A.

AU - Ajarem, Jamaan S.

AU - Bahnemann, Detlef W.

AU - Wang, Chuanyi

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21976116 and 52161145409), Shaanxi Science and Technology Program (2020KWZ-005), and SAFEA of China (“Belt and Road” Innovative Exchange Foreign Expert Project, DL2021041001L). The authors acknowledge Researchers Supporting Project (no. RSP-2021/149), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

PY - 2023/2/10

Y1 - 2023/2/10

N2 - In the context of the circular economy, the high quantity of agroforestry waste should be transformed into sustainable and high-value materials to abate pollution, CO2 emissions, and expensive waste disposal. Herein, the agroforestry waste of apple leaves was initially used as a precursor to extract the value-added nanomaterial carbon quantum dots (CQDs) by way of an easy hydrothermal strategy without complicated purification processes, as extracted CQDs doped with N and P possess a typical graphite-like structure, a fine particle size of 2.0 nm, and excitation-dependent photoluminescence (PL) behavior. The doping of N and P endows CQDs with a much higher quantum yield (18.1%), good water solubility, high fluorescence stability, and specific recognition ability for the detection of Fe3+. The fluorescence of CQDs could be quickly quenched by Fe3+ within 1 min and recovered with the addition of ascorbic acid, suggesting the recyclability of the prepared CQD-based fluorescent probe. Systematic analyses support that a synergistic mechanism of static fluorescence quenching and inner filter effect was involved in the detection of Fe3+ by CQDs, showing a linear range between 0 and 160 μM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 4.0 μM. Furthermore, the feasibility of detecting Fe3+ by CQDs in practice was verified by tap water/lake water samples. The present work evinces that apple leaves are useful in producing green and low-cost CQDs as a promising fluorescent probe for sensitive, rapid, and selective detection of Fe3+ in an aqueous environment.

AB - In the context of the circular economy, the high quantity of agroforestry waste should be transformed into sustainable and high-value materials to abate pollution, CO2 emissions, and expensive waste disposal. Herein, the agroforestry waste of apple leaves was initially used as a precursor to extract the value-added nanomaterial carbon quantum dots (CQDs) by way of an easy hydrothermal strategy without complicated purification processes, as extracted CQDs doped with N and P possess a typical graphite-like structure, a fine particle size of 2.0 nm, and excitation-dependent photoluminescence (PL) behavior. The doping of N and P endows CQDs with a much higher quantum yield (18.1%), good water solubility, high fluorescence stability, and specific recognition ability for the detection of Fe3+. The fluorescence of CQDs could be quickly quenched by Fe3+ within 1 min and recovered with the addition of ascorbic acid, suggesting the recyclability of the prepared CQD-based fluorescent probe. Systematic analyses support that a synergistic mechanism of static fluorescence quenching and inner filter effect was involved in the detection of Fe3+ by CQDs, showing a linear range between 0 and 160 μM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 4.0 μM. Furthermore, the feasibility of detecting Fe3+ by CQDs in practice was verified by tap water/lake water samples. The present work evinces that apple leaves are useful in producing green and low-cost CQDs as a promising fluorescent probe for sensitive, rapid, and selective detection of Fe3+ in an aqueous environment.

KW - carbon quantum dots

KW - fluorescent sensor

KW - green production

KW - metal ion detection

KW - waste disposal

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143610316&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acsestengg.2c00294

DO - 10.1021/acsestengg.2c00294

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85143610316

VL - ´3

SP - 260

EP - 270

JO - ACS ES and T Engineering

JF - ACS ES and T Engineering

IS - 2

ER -