Investigation of nitrogen content effect in reducing agent to prepare wavelength controllable fluorescent silicon nanoparticles and its application in detection of 2-nitrophenol

Yangxia Han; Yonglei Chen; Jie Feng; Min Na; Juanjuan Liu; Yunxia Ma; Sudai Ma; Xingguo Chen

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2018.11.008

Investigation of nitrogen content effect in reducing agent to prepare wavelength controllable fluorescent silicon nanoparticles and its application in detection of 2-nitrophenol

Talanta. 2019 Mar 1:194:822-829. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2018.11.008. Epub 2018 Nov 6.

Authors

Yangxia Han¹, Yonglei Chen¹, Jie Feng¹, Min Na¹, Juanjuan Liu¹, Yunxia Ma¹, Sudai Ma¹, Xingguo Chen²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Department of Chemistry, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China; Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730000, China. Electronic address: chenxg@lzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 30609611
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2018.11.008

Abstract

Fluorescent silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) displayed different emission wavelengths have been synthesized, but it has not been reported that the preparation of wavelength controllable SiNPs by adjusting the nitrogen content of reducing agents. In this paper, the wavelength-controlled fluorescent SiNPs were prepared by selecting the dopamine (DA) with nitrogen content between catechol and 2-aminophenol as the reducing agent and N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl]-ethylenediamine (DAMO) as the silicon source via one-step hydrothermal method. The emission wavelength of the prepared SiNPs was in direct proportion to the nitrogen content in the reducing agent. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time for exploring the nitrogen content in reducing agents could affect the optical properties of SiNPs so far. In addition, the obtained SiNPs could be applied to determinate 2-nitrophenol (2-NP). Based on the combination action of inner filter effect (IFE) and static quenching effect (SQE) mechanism, a wide linear range was obtained from 0.1 to 500 μM, and the limit of detection was 0.029 μM for 2-NP, which was comparable to or even lower than some previous reports. This SiNPs probe was also successfully employed for sensing of 2-NP in industrial effluent with satisfactory results (98.6%-103.4%).

Keywords: 2-Nitrophenol; Fluorescent silicon nanoparticles; Hydrothermal method; Wavelength controllable.