Self-exothermic reaction assisted green synthesis of carbon dots for the detection of para-nitrophenol and β-glucosidase activity

A rapid, green synthesis strategy assisted by a self-exothermic reaction was designed to prepare highly luminescent carbon dots (CDs) from Ganpu tea infusion (G-CDs) within 5 min using H2O2 and diethylenetriamine (DETA) as the exothermic reactants. G-CDs were successfully obtained through a self-exothermic reaction The prepared G-CDs exhibited clear excitation-dependent characteristics and displayed a strong ultraviolet fluorescence emission (385 nm) at the excitation wavelength of 320 nm. The fluorescence of G-CDs was quantitatively quenched by para-nitrophenol (p-NP) with a concentration range of 0.05–50 µM through inner filter effect (IFE). Since p-NP is one of the hydrolysates of the substrate pNPG under the action of Beta-glucosidase (β-Glu), a new fluorescence assay was developed for the indirect determination of β-Glu activity. The detection limits of G-CDs based fluorescence assays are 14.6 nM for p-NP and 0.074 U·L-1 for β-Glu activity, respectively. The developed fluorescence assays were successfully applied to the detection of p-NP in water and human urine samples and β-Glu activity in fruit samples with satisfactory results.