Selective and sensitive detection of tartrazine in beverages by sulfur quantum dots with high fluorescence quantum yield

Abstract

In this work, sulfur quantum dots (TPA-SQDs) protected by terephthalic acid as a stabilizer were synthesized using a one-pot method. When excited at 310 nm, the synthesized TPA-SQDs solution emitted strong blue fluorescence at 428 nm, and the absolute quantum yield was as high as 85.99%. The proposed SQDs can be used as a fluorescent probe to specifically quench tartrazine (TZ), showing a good linear relationship (R2 = 0.996) at TZ concentrations of 0.1–20 μM, with a detection limit of 39 nM. By analysing the fluorescence lifetime, UV–Vis absorption spectrum and zeta potential of the assay system, it can be speculated that the fluorescence quenching mechanism of TZ on TPA-SQDs is the inner filter effect (IFE). The proposed method was applied to the detection of TZ in vitamin water and orange juice, and the results were consistent with the determination results by high-performance liquid chromatography. The recoveries and relative standard deviations were 93.2–102.6% and 1.34–2.88%, respectively, which provided an alternative method for the determination of TZ in beverages or other food samples.