TEHRAN (ANA)- Iranian researchers at Islamic Azad University’s Arak branch succeeded in preparing fluorescent carbon dots coated with stimuli-responsive polymers for application in sensors.
“Using carbon dots as sensors to measure ions and molecules is an effective, fast and inexpensive method that does not require complex equipment and is non-toxic and environmentally friendly,” said Maryam Saleh Mohammadnia, a PhD graduate in applied chemistry from Islamic Azad University’s Arak branch.
“Since one of the important and fundamental needs in the field of environmental pollution control is the continuous purification of air pollution, sensors play the main and most important role in this regard,” she added.
“Although CO2 gas is one of the most important gases in the life cycle of living organisms, excessive emission of this gas has left destructive impacts on the environment,” Saleh Mohammadnia said, adding that detection of the gas in the environment is also difficult and of special importance.
Noting that the CO2 sensors face problems like detection limit, energy consumption, sensitivity range, and in some cases, the low speed of detection of pollution and gas leakage, she said, “We hope that the problems will be resolved with the smart nanosensors designed in this research.”
“These nanosensors are used in preparation of acidity and alkalinity sensors, ion sensors, temperature sensors, biological sensors and anti-counterfeiting inks,” Saleh Mohammadnia said.
Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) are a new class of carbon nanomaterials and have demonstrated excellent optical properties, good biocompatibility, great aqueous solubility, low cost, simple synthesis, etc.
Since their discovery, various synthesis methods using different precursors have been developed, and are mainly classified as top-down and bottom-up approaches. For the mechanistic origin of CDs photoluminescence, three mechanisms have been proposed such as quantum confinement effect, surface state and molecule state.
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Source: ANA