Silicon-Doped Carbon Dots Crosslinked Carboxymethyl Cellulose Gel: Detection and Adsorption of Fe.

The excessive emission of iron will pollute the environment and harm human health, so the fluorescence detection and adsorption of Fe are of great significance. In the field of water treatment, cellulose-based gels have attracted wide attention due to their excellent properties and environmental friendliness. If carbon dots are used as a crosslinking agent to form a gel with cellulose, it can not only improve mechanical properties but also show good biocompatibility, reactivity, and fluorescence properties. In this study, silicon-doped carbon dots/carboxymethyl cellulose gel (DCG) was successfully prepared by chemically crosslinking biomass-derived silicon-doped carbon dots with carboxymethyl cellulose. The abundant crosslinking points endow the gel with excellent mechanical properties, with a compressive strength reaching 294 kPa. In the experiment on adsorbing Fe, the theoretical adsorption capacity reached 125.30 mg/g. The introduction of silicon-doped carbon dots confers the gel with excellent fluorescence properties and a good selective response to Fe. It exhibits a good linear relationship within the concentration range of 0-100 mg/L, with a detection limit of 0.6595 mg/L. DCG appears to be a good application prospect in the adsorption and detection of Fe.