Chemiluminescent carbon nanodots as sensors for hydrogen peroxide and glucose

Abstract Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is an important product generated in the body and related to many pathophysiological processes and glucose metabolism disorder can cause many fatal diseases in living bodies. Therefore, the sensing of H 2 O 2 and glucose is of great significance in disease diagnostics and treatment. Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) are one new class of nanoprobes for H 2 O 2 and glucose. Nevertheless, the CD-based sensor is always based on its fluorescence response, which is influenced by the auto-fluorescent interference. Herein, efficient fluorescent CDs were synthesized by one-pot solvothermal method, and the CDs exhibit bright and persistent deep-red (DR) chemiluminescence (CL) in bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate and H 2 O 2 solution with a CL quantum yield of (8.22 ± 0.30) × 10 −3 , which is amongst the highest values in ever reported nanomaterials for chemical analysis. Employing the CDs as CL nanoprobes, sensitive sensing for H 2 O 2 has been achieved with a detection limit of 11.7 μM, and further for glucose detection with a detection limit of 12.6 μM. The DR CL CDs is promising to be applied in blood glucose analysis or in vivo biosensor.