Facile Bottom-up Preparation of WS2-Based Water-Soluble Quantum Dots as Luminescent Probes for Hydrogen Peroxide and Glucose

Da-Ren Hang,Krishna Hari Sharma,Chun-Hu Chen,De-You Sun,Mitch M C Chou,Sk Emdadul Islam,Hui-Fen Wu

doi:10.1186/s11671-019-3109-5

Da-Ren Hang, Krishna Hari Sharma + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-019-3109-5

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Journal: Nanoscale Research Letters	Publication Date: Aug 9, 2019
Citations: 31	License type: open-access

Affiliation: National Sun Yat-sen University

Abstract

Photoluminescent zero-dimensional (0D) quantum dots (QDs) derived from transition metal dichalcogenides, particularly molybdenum disulfide, are presently in the spotlight for their advantageous characteristics for optoelectronics, imaging, and sensors. Nevertheless, up to now, little work has been done to synthesize and explore photoluminescent 0D WS2 QDs, especially by a bottom-up strategy without using usual toxic organic solvents. In this work, we report a facile bottom-up strategy to synthesize high-quality water-soluble tungsten disulfide (WS2) QDs through hydrothermal reaction by using sodium tungstate dihydrate and l-cysteine as W and S sources. Besides, hybrid carbon quantum dots/WS2 QDs were further prepared based on this method. Physicochemical and structural analysis of QD hybrid indicated that the graphitic carbon quantum dots with diameters about 5 nm were held onto WS2 QDs via electrostatic attraction forces. The resultant QDs show good water solubility and stable photoluminescence (PL). The excitation-dependent PL can be attributed to the polydispersity of the synthesized QDs. We found that the PL was stable under continuous irradiation of UV light but can be quenched in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The obtained WS2-based QDs were thus adopted as an electrodeless luminescent probe for H2O2 and for enzymatic sensing of glucose. The hybrid QDs were shown to have a more sensitive LOD in the case of glucose sensing. The Raman study implied that H2O2 causes the partial oxidation of QDs, which may lead to oxidation-induced quenching. Overall, the presented strategy provides a general guideline for facile and low-cost synthesis of other water-soluble layered material QDs and relevant hybrids in large quantity. These WS2-based high-quality water-soluble QDs should be promising for a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, environmental monitoring, medical imaging, and photocatalysis.

Highlights

In the past decade, graphene has opened a new horizon of two-dimensional (2D) materials for chemists and physicists [1–3]
A typical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the resultant WS2 quantum dots (QDs) (Fig. 1a) shows that the QDs are uniformly dispersed in aqueous phase without apparent aggregation
Our result shows that Carbon quantum dot (CD)/WS2 QDs provide a more sensitive LOD for glucose detection while pristine WS2 QDs works better for larger dynamic range

Summary

Introduction

Graphene has opened a new horizon of two-dimensional (2D) materials for chemists and physicists [1–3]. Due to the inherent shortcomings of graphene, such as absence of band gap, research for. Hang et al Nanoscale Research Letters (2019) 14:271 molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has shown great potential in a wide range of applications, such as electronics, sensors, and photocatalysis [9–11]. 2D MoS2 has been employed for the detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and glucose in the last couple of years [13–15]. The detection of hydrogen peroxide, a vital reactive oxygen species, is of practical importance in chemical, pharmaceutical, clinical, and environmental fields. It is known that over 80% of biosensor industry research is related to glucose sensors. The development of a facile, low-priced, and accurate sensor for H2O2 and glucose continue to receive tremendous research effort [17, 18]

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