Department of Biotechnology, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa 403206, India.
Combi Chem Bioresource Centre, Organic Chemistry Division, CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411008, India.
Environ Technol. 2020 Jan;41(3):322-328. doi: 10.1080/09593330.2018.1498133. Epub 2018 Jul 24.
Nonylphenol, an endocrine disrupter, is widely released to the aquatic environment, which is accumulative and extremely toxic to aquatic organisms. Here, we report a simple and cost-effective large-scale green synthesis of water-soluble highly fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from marine biowaste (offshore washed algae) which gets quenched strongly in the presence of nonylphenol. These CQDs were around 20-40 nm in size and exhibit fluorescence constantly at 360 nm. The XRD profile depicted the interlayer spacing in the particle as 0.284 nm with a humped peak around 14 degrees showing the amorphous nature of the CQDs. FTIR spectra showed the stretching vibration of the hydroxyl groups (OH), asymmetric and symmetric stretching vibrations of the carboxylate anions (COO-). The fluorescence quantum yield of the CQDs is up to 68% and nonyl phenol detection limit is less than 0.1 µM. Furthermore, the CQDs were found to be stable at a wide pH range which makes it a suitable nonylphenol sensor for a variety of environmental samples. We functionalized these CQDs on an agarose gel matrix to develop a convenient sensor for the rapid detection of nonylphenol.
壬基酚是一种内分泌干扰物，广泛释放到水生环境中，对水生生物具有累积性和极强的毒性。在这里，我们报道了一种简单且具有成本效益的大规模绿色合成方法，可从海洋生物废料（近海藻类）中合成水溶性高荧光碳量子点（CQDs），在壬基酚存在下，这些量子点的荧光会被强烈猝灭。这些 CQDs 的尺寸约为 20-40nm，并在 360nm 处持续发出荧光。XRD 图谱显示颗粒中的层间距为 0.284nm，14 度左右有一个凸起的峰，表明 CQDs 具有无定形性质。FTIR 光谱显示了羟基（OH）的伸缩振动、羧酸根阴离子（COO-）的不对称和对称伸缩振动。CQDs 的荧光量子产率高达 68%，壬基酚的检测限小于 0.1µM。此外，CQDs 在很宽的 pH 范围内都很稳定，这使得它成为一种适用于各种环境样品的壬基酚传感器。我们将这些 CQDs 功能化到琼脂糖凝胶基质上，开发了一种用于快速检测壬基酚的便捷传感器。
