Highly sensitive and selective detection of mercury ions using N, S-codoped graphene quantum dots and its paper strip based sensing application in wastewater

[Display omitted] •N, S-GQDs with high quantum yield are fabricated for rapid turn-off detection of Hg2+ ions.•The dynamic range of Hg2+ by N, S-GQDs are 4 orders of magnitude with LOD of 0.14nM.•The N, S-GQDs exhibit excellent selectivity towards Hg2+ detection in real wastewater. The development of robust and low-cost sensing materials with superior selectivity and sensitivity for rapid detection of analytes in a wide variety of samples has attracted much attention. Herein, the N, S-codoped graphene quantum dots (N, S-GQDs) with high quantum yield were fabricated by one-pot hydrothermal method for highly sensitive and selective detection of nanomolar level of mercury ions (Hg2+) in water and wastewater. The as-prepared N, S-GQDs are uniform in size with mean particle size of 3.5±0.5nm. The doping of nitrogen atoms increases the quantum yield to 41.9%, while the introduction of sulfur atoms enhances the selectivity of Hg2+ via strong coordination interaction. The fluorescence intensity of N, S-GQDs is quenched proportionally after adding Hg2+ and a dynamic range of 4 orders of magnitude with limit of detection of 0.14nM is obtained in deionized water. The N, S-GQDs nanosensing probes can be successfully applied to the sewage and dye wastewater samples and a linear range of 0.1–15μM with recovery of 96–116% is obtained. In addition, the coating of N, S-GQDs onto paper strip provides an excellently rapid screening and highly selective technique for Hg2+ detection in real wastewater. Results obtained in this study clearly indicate that the N, S-GQDs are promising nanomaterials which can open an new avenue to design the GQD based sensing probe for highly sensitive and selective detection of metal ions and other analytes in environmental and biological fluid samples.