A dual-mode fluorescent probe based on carbon dots for detecting solution polarity

Tingting Duan; Yanhong Lu; Ting Ma; Jing Wang; Tong Xie; Qi Fan; Zhengliang Wang; Qin Wang; Meizhu Rong; Peizhi Yang

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2023.122554

A dual-mode fluorescent probe based on carbon dots for detecting solution polarity

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2023 Jun 5:294:122554. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.122554. Epub 2023 Feb 27.

Authors

Tingting Duan¹, Yanhong Lu¹, Ting Ma¹, Jing Wang¹, Tong Xie¹, Qi Fan¹, Zhengliang Wang², Qin Wang³, Meizhu Rong⁴, Peizhi Yang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Technique ＆ Preparation for Renewable Energy Materials, Ministry of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Environment, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming 650500, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Advanced Technique ＆ Preparation for Renewable Energy Materials, Ministry of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China. Electronic address: wqin@foxmail.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Advanced Technique ＆ Preparation for Renewable Energy Materials, Ministry of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China. Electronic address: mz-80311@163.com.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Advanced Technique ＆ Preparation for Renewable Energy Materials, Ministry of Education, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650500, PR China. Electronic address: pzhyang@hotmail.com.

PMID: 36868021
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2023.122554

Abstract

Fluorescent probes always attract huge attention. In particular, carbon dots, due to their unique biocompatibility and variable fluorescence characteristics, can be used in multiple fields and were fulled of expectation by researchers. Since the advent of the dual-mode carbon dots probe, which greatly improved the accuracy of quantitative detection, there are higher hopes for dual-mode carbon dots probes. Herein, we have successfully developed a new dual-mode fluorescent carbon dots probe based on 1,10-phenanthroline (Ph-CDs). Ph-CDs detect the object to be measured based on both down-conversion luminescence and up-conversion luminescence at the same time, different from the reported dual-mode fluorescent probes which are based on the wavelength and intensity changes in down-conversion luminescence. As-prepared Ph-CDs have good linear relationships with the polarity of solvents in down-conversion luminescence (R² = 0.9909) and up-conversion luminescence (R² = 0.9374), respectively. Hence, Ph-CDs provide a new in-depth insight into the design of fluorescent probes with dual-mode detection and they can give more accurate, reliable and convenient detection results.

Keywords: Carbon dots; Down-conversion luminescence; Dual-mode fluorescent probe; Polarity probe; Up-conversion luminescence.