Metal Ion Detection by Carbon Dots-A Review

Development of economical, sensitive, selective and robust sensors for metal ion sensing is always fascinating for a chemist because traditional routs for their detection involve complicated instrumentation and critical sample preparation procedures. A large number of metal ion detectors including carbon dots (CDs) have been reported for sensitive and selective detection of metal ions. This review comprehensively explores the use of CDs as metallic cation sensors. CDs are being fabricated from variety of carbon sources by employing various synthetic channels. CDs are proved to be efficient colorimetric and fluorimetric detectors due to surface oxygen moieties which are responsible to co-ordinate with metal ions. Doping of CDs with hetero atom such as N, S, B etc. may further enhance their activity toward metal detection. Therefore, designing of CDs having selective sensing properties with low detection limits has gained significant interest.

Automated summary

This review comprehensively explores the use of carbon dots (CDs) as metallic cation sensors. CDs are fabricated from various carbon sources and have efficient colorimetric and fluorimetric detection abilities due to surface oxygen moieties that coordinate with metal ions. Doping CDs with hetero atoms further enhances their metal detection activity, making the design of CDs with selective sensing properties and low detection limits a significant interest.