The innovative design of carbon dots on polymer texture for highly selective detection of amino compounds

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are of growing concern due to their toxicity and environmental impact. Their facile detection is thus of a high importance but still challenging because they are unreactive and often present at very low concentrations. Developing sensing schemes for VOCs based on low-cost, sensitive, selective, and user-friendly methods is therefore crucial for environmental monitoring. To address these issues, we herein developed polymer supported carbon dots (CDs) by reacting tetraminobenzene with 2,4,6-trichlorophenyl oxalate using a simple reflux method. Owing to the selection of precursors, polymer supported fluorescent carbon dots (P-CDs) were grown decorating the synthesized polymeric spheres. The P-CDs composites were highly stable, and their fluorescence was drastically quenched by several VOC analytes (ethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, and ammonia) due to the rich surface functional groups that could effectively and selectively interact with amines. The polymer component contributed to ascribing excellent photophysical and chemical stability, which is valuable particularly for sensing in complex matrices. As a result, the developed P-CDs exhibited superior properties when applied as VOC sensors, including high selectivity for several amines but not for other organic species, fast response, and very high stability, while offering a simple detection method, and minimum sample pre-treatment. The P-CD design has extended potential for diverse sensing applications, including, for instance, control of prohibited transport of chemicals and post-toxic analysis.