Abstract
Mercury(ii), which is a well-known toxic species, exists in the industrial waste water in many cases. In the present work, CdTe quantum dots (QDs) are studied as a fluorescence probe for Hg2+ detection. Ag ions are induced to QDs to enlarge their detection concentration range. l-cysteine is employed in the QD-based fluorescence probe to connect QDs with Hg2+. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results indicate the formation of zinc blende CdTe QDs with sizes of ∼5 nm and the existence of Ag+ in crystalline CdTe. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra and PL decay spectra were acquired to investigate the emission mechanism of Ag-doped CdTe QDs, revealing multi-emission in QD samples with higher concentrations of Ag+ doping. The highest PL quantum yield of the QD samples was 59.4%. Furthermore, the relationship between the fluorescence intensity and the concentration of Hg2+ has been established. Two linear relationships were obtained for the plot of F/F0 against Hg2+ concentration, enlarging the detection concentration range of Hg2+.
Highlights
Mercury, which is contained in almost all minerals and plays an important role in many products, is widely distributed in nature
Fluorescence analytical method[4,5,6] as one of the simplest and effective methods has attracted wide attentions, as researchers have found that aState Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials & School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P
The results showed that the Ag-doped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) with 5 mol% Ag precursor possessed a quantum yield of 59.4%, which is much higher than that of the pure CdTe QDs, i.e. 20.3%
Summary
Mercury, which is contained in almost all minerals and plays an important role in many products, is widely distributed in nature. Analytical spectroscopic methods, including atomic absorption spectrometry,[1] inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry,[2] and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry,[3] have already been used for accurate discrimination and detection of heavy metal ions. Most of these methods are high-cost, are time-consuming, or require complicated sample pretreatment or large sample volumes in the analytical process. Fluorescence analytical method[4,5,6] as one of the simplest and effective methods has attracted wide attentions, as researchers have found that aState Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials & School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. The application of uorescent dyes in probes is limited in some elds because of their disadvantages, such as low uorescence intensity and poor light stability
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