Abstract Sensitive detection and efficient removal of Au3+ are important for environmental monitoring and remediation. In this study, silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) were prepared with 3-aminopropyl trimethoxysilane as the silicon source and boric acid as the doping substance to enhance fluorescence quantum yield. The obtained SiQDs possessed fluorescence sensing ability of Au3+ and were successfully decorated on the mesoporous silica microspheres (SiO2), giving SiO2-SiQDs. Owing to the high affinity for Au3+ and the relatively large surface area, the SiO2-SiQDs exhibited not only selective fluorescence detection of Au3+ in water matrix with a relatively low limit of detection (13.67 μg L−1), but also efficient adsorption of Au3+ with a maximal adsorption capacity of 530.7 mg g−1. Besides, the Au3+ adsorbed on the SiO2-SiQDs could be in-situ reduced into evenly dispersed small-size gold nanoparticles, showing high catalytic efficiency for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol. The remarkable performance of SiO2-SiQDs on detection, adsorption and reusability demonstrated its multi-purposed applicabilities.

中文翻译：

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高荧光硅量子点装饰二氧化硅微球，用于选择性检测和去除 Au3+ 以及随后的催化应用

摘要 灵敏检测和有效去除 Au3+ 对环境监测和修复具有重要意义。本研究以3-氨基丙基三甲氧基硅烷为硅源，硼酸为掺杂物质，制备了硅量子点（SiQDs），以提高荧光量子产率。获得的 SiQDs 具有 Au3+ 的荧光传感能力，并成功地装饰在介孔二氧化硅微球 (SiO2) 上，得到 SiO2-SiQDs。由于对 Au3+ 的高亲和力和相对较大的表面积，SiO2-SiQDs 不仅表现出对水基质中 Au3+ 的选择性荧光检测，检测限相对较低（13.67 μg L-1），而且对 Au3+ 具有高效吸附最大吸附容量为 530.7 mg g-1。除了，吸附在SiO2-SiQDs上的Au3+可以原位还原成均匀分散的小尺寸金纳米粒子，对4-硝基苯酚的还原具有很高的催化效率。SiO2-SiQDs 在检测、吸附和可重复使用方面的卓越性能证明了其多用途的适用性。