Green Hydrothermal Synthesis of N-doped Carbon Dots from Biomass Highland Barley for the Detection of Hg(2+)

Totally water-soluble N-doped Carbon dots (N-CDs) were synthesized by a green hydrothermal method from biomass using Highland barley as a carbon source and ethanediamine as nitrogen source. TEM and XRD showed the graphitic amorphous structure and narrow diameter distribution of these N-CDs. N-doping to the crystal lattice and carrying many hydrophilic groups on the surface of N-CDs were verified by XPS and FT-IR. The as-synthesized N-CDs emitted strong blue fluorescence at 480 nm and owned a relatively high quantum yield of 14.4%. The product also could sensitively and selectively detect Hg(2+) ions in the range of 10–160 μM and the limit of detection was equal to 0.48 μM.