Enhancement of the fluorescence property of carbon quantum dots based on laser ablated gold nanoparticles to evaluate pyrene

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles were prepared in a carbon quantum dots solution using the laser ablation technique to enhance the photoluminescence property of a carbon quantum dots solution. The gold plate was ablated using a Q-Switched Nd:YAG laser at 4, 8, 12, and 16 minutes with a stable laser energy. The optical properties, functional groups, and the morphology of the prepared samples were examined using UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. When the ablation time increased, the size of the gold nanoparticles decreased from 20.69 nm to 13.52 and the plasmonic quality factor and concentration of the gold nanoparticles increased. The intensity peak of the photoluminescence carbon quantum dots solution increased in the presence of the gold nanoparticles and the interaction between the pure carbon quantum dots and the gold-nanoparticles/carbon quantum dots composite with pyrene were investigated using photoluminescence spectroscopy. Consequently, the variation in the photoluminescent peak in the presence of the gold nanoparticles was greater than the variation in the photoluminescence peak in the presence of pure carbon quantum dots. The detection limit was 1 ppm. Therefore, the gold nanoparticles not only enhanced the photoluminescence property of the CQD bath also it improved the interaction of the CQD with pyrene.