Amide-decorated carbon dots as sensitive and selective probes for fluorescence enhancement detection of cadmium ion.

As highly toxic metal ions, cadmium ions (Cd) are prevalent in varying concentrations around the world. The establishment of an accurate and effective method for Cd determination with high sensitivity and selectivity is of particular concern. The present work fabricated a fluorescence chemosensor for the detection of Cd based on functionalized carbon dots (CDs), which were hydrothermally prepared using amidated hyperbranched-polyethyleneimine (HPEI).