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In this report, an economic and green one-step heating process was used to synthesize fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) and doped CDs using Miscanthus grass as the starting material. The structural characterization of as-synthesized Miscanthus derived CDs (MCD) and doped MCD was carried out by microscopic and spectroscopic study. The presence of copious oxygen containing functional groups was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The synthesized MCD and doped MCD demonstrated high quantum yield. Photoluminescence (PL) and UV-visible spectroscopy was utilized to investigate the optical properties of MCD and doped MCDs. Their optical performance was further investigated under different pH and also their capacity to sense different metal ions were evaluated. N-doped MCD exhibited superb selectivity toward Fe³⁺ ions, with a low limit of detection and wide detection range. The linear relationship between normalized fluorescence intensity of the prepared N-doped MCD and the Fe³⁺ ions concentration can be utilized for selective, sensitive and label-free detection of Fe³⁺ ions.

Acknowledgements:

The authors would like to thank the following for their financial support: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)/University of Guelph - Bioeconomy for Industrial Uses Research Program (Project # 030332); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Grants Project #400320, Canada Discovery Grants Project # 400320 and 401111; and the Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence Program; Round-7 (ORF-RE07) from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science (MRIS) (Project # 052644 and 052665).