Sensitive detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene utilizing fluorescent sensor from carbon dots and reusable magnetic core-shell nanomaterial

Carbon dots have been a promising nano-carbon material with many advantages, and attracted many more attentions. This study designed a new chemosensor integrating the strong fluorescent property of carbon dots and the magnetism of amino-functionalized magnetic core-shell nanomaterial, Fe@SiO2–NH2 for determination of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). In this system, fluorescent carbon dots interacted with amino groups on the surface of amino-functionalized magnetic core-shell nanomaterial leading to fluorescence quenching of carbon dots, appearance of TNT competitively replaced of carbon dots on the surface of the magnetic material through forming a Meisenheimer complex. This sensor exhibits excellent selectivity and sensitivity for TNT, and which provided a good dynamic linear range for TNT from 10 to 2000 ng mL−1. The experiments demonstrate a low detection limit of 2.15 ng mL−1. The intra-day precisions for 25, 100 and 500 ng mL−1 were 4.6, 2.3 and 0.5% (RSD, n = 6), inter-day precisions for 25, 100 and 500 ng mL−1 were 4.2, 2.5 and 0.9% (RSD, n = 6), respectively. The developed sensor was validated with river water, dust, and soil samples, and the achieved spiked recoveries were immensely satisfied from 98.1% to 102.0%. The Fe@SiO2–NH2 possessed excellent reusability. This sensor exhibits that it is simple, sensitive and selective, and will be a vital analytical tool for TNT in many fields. [Display omitted] •Carbon dots were facilely synthesized with sodium citrate and polyacrylamide.•Sensitive chemosensor was developed with Fe@SiO2–NH2 and the prepared carbon dots.•Chemosensor exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity for TNT.•The sensor provided remarkable merits and had promising application prospect.