Herein, we designed a sensitive and selective “Turn-On” fluorescence nanosensor using water-soluble carbonaceous fluorescent nanomaterials (CFNs) functionalized with thiourea (CFNs-thiourea) for efficient detection of trace amounts of arsenic (III) in aqueous samples. The CFNs and CFNs-Thiourea were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The emission peak intensity of proposed nanosensor at 425 nm was gradually enhanced on arsenite addition in wide detection range (3.3–828.5 µg L-1) attributed to the binding of arsenite species with sulfur groups of CFNs-thiourea. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.48 µg L-1 being much lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended threshold value of 10 µg L-1. Furthermore, the as prepared thiourea -CFNs exhibited an superb selectivity for As (III) compared various cations and anions such as; NO3−, NO2−, F−, Ni2+, Fe3+, Cu2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Zn2+, Fe2+, Hg2+, Pb2+, F-, Cl-, Mn2+, Cr3+, Co2+, Cd2+, Bi3+, Al3+ and As (V) at 100 folds concentration of As (III). The turn on fluorescence nanosensor was successfully exploited for quantification of arsenic in spiked water samples with acceptable efficiencies.
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