Multicolor fluorescent carbon dots based sensor array for rapid identification of multiple metal ions
Array-based sensor"chemical nose/tongue"platforms are inspired by the mammalian olfactory.It can obtain multidimensional information showing significant advantages in mixture identification and significantly improving analytical efficiency.Herein,we developed a multichannel sensor array for distinguish metal ions in complex systems based on three color fluorescent carbon dots(CDs)as both recognition units and signal reporting units,simultaneously.Three color fluorescent CDs were synthesized by using citric acid as carbon source with changing the synthesis method and functional monomers.The emission wavelength of the three CDs is independent of the excitation wavelength,and their surfaces contain different functional groups that interacted with metal ions to varying degrees,resulting in different fluorescence responses.By using multivariate statistical techniques to identify the dataset,14 types of metal ions can be distinguished.In addition,the array sensor can successfully distinguish binary,ternary,and quaternary metal ion mixtures,and can also successfully distinguish 14 metal ions in complex systems such as serum,saliva,and environmental water samples.