Solvent-dependent carbon dots and their applications in the detection of water in organic solvents

In this study, solvent-dependent emitting carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized by simple one-step hydrothermal treatment of o-phenylenediamine (oPD). The as-prepared carbon dots (o-CDs) exhibited multi-color emission and strict excitation-independent luminescence characteristics in different solvents. Moreover, multi-color emissive o-CDs/polymer films were achieved through integrating the o-CDs with different polymer matrices. Interestingly, our experimental results demonstrated that distinctive o-CDs can also be used as fluorescent probes directly for visual and quantitative detection of water in different organic solvents. These investigations broaden the application of CDs and provide an easy method to quantitatively detect the presence of water in organic solvents.