Facile Synthesis of Carbon Dots from Green Resource and Their Application for Selective Determination of Mg.

A simple, fast and sensitive method based on the fluorescence quenching of carbon dots was developed for the determination of Mg in environmental and biological sample. Carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized from arugula seeds by hydrothermal method. The precursor is cheap, easily available and environment friendly. CDs were characterized by selected techniques. They showed a bright blue fluorescent under UV light while under day light the synthesized CDs showed brown colour. The CDs were highly fluorescent. The interaction of CDs with various selected cations such as Ni, Sr, Cd, Mg, Cu, Al, Co, K, Ca, Pb, Cr, Na, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Mo, Sb, Sn, Cr, Ba, Li and Fe was studied to check the probable potential application for the studied ions. All the studied ions did not show any effect on the intensity of CDs except Mg which quenched the intensity of the CDs. A linear relation was found between the quenching of CDs intensity and Mg concentration. The quenching was explained with the Stern-Volmer equation that produced the Stern-Volmer constant ([Formula: see text]). [Formula: see text], detection limit (DL) and quantification limit (QL) were observed in the order 2.85 × 10 mol L, 32.6 n mol L and 108 n mol L correspondingly. Method based on the fluorescence quenching of CDs is reproducible and useful for the Mg determination in environmental and biological samples.