Recent Advances in Carbon Dot-based Fluorescent Probes for Detection of Heavy Metal Ions

Heavy metal ion pollution severely impacts the ecological environment and human health, making the sensitive and specific detection of heavy metal ions an urgent priority. Currently, commonly used detection methods for heavy metal ions are costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, highlighting the critical need to develop low-cost and user-friendly approaches for detecting heavy metal ions. Carbon dots (CDs) exhibit advantages such as unique optical properties, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity. As an emerging nanomaterial, CDs-based fluorescent probes have been used for detection of heavy metal ions. This review focused on the applications of CDs-based fluorescent probes in heavy metal ion detection. It introduced the sensing mechanism of CDs and summarized the research progress reported in the past three years on detection of heavy metal ions such as Fe3+, Cu2+, Pb2+, Hg2+, and Zn2+using CDs. In addition, the main challenges and future development directions of CDs-based fluorescent probes were discussed.