Carbon dots/layered zirconium phosphate composites for the adsorption–detection integration of iron ions

Abstract

Pollution of water resources by metal ions poses an enormous threat to sustainable development. It is extremely desirable to develop new composites for the integrated adsorption–detection of heavy metal ions. Herein, hybrid composites were prepared by a straightforward multistep approach to decorate carbon quantum dots on zirconium phosphate interlayer regions. The resulting CDs/ZrP composites combine the merits of the two components, with good Fe³⁺ adsorption performance and excellent fluorescence properties. Investigations were conducted to gain specific analytical and mechanistic insights on the Fe³⁺ adsorption and fluorescence detection performance. The CDs/ZrP composites showed good durability after 13 cycles of reutilization and a maximum adsorption capacity of 93.01 mg·g⁻¹. Moreover, the CDs/ZrP composites could also be used as a low-cost, sensitive and selective sensing platform for Fe³⁺ detection in real environmental water samples, with a wide linear range of 0.25–80 μM and a low detection limit of 0.08 μM, demonstrating potential applications in pollution control.