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Thioglycolic acid-capped ZnSe quantum dots as nanoprobe for cobalt(II) and iron(III) via measurement of grey level, UV-vis spectra and dynamic light scattering

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Abstract

Thioglycolic acid-functionalized ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) as a colorimetric nanoprobe were prepared and applied to the determination of cobalt(II) and iron(III). Test strips were obtained by a dipping-drying process. On exposure to Co(II), they undergo a color change from white to brown, and on exposure to Fe(III) from white to pink. The limits of detection (LOD) are 2.6 mg L−1 for Co(II) and 2.2 mg L−1 for Fe(III). Test strips introduce a low-cost, portable, rapid and convenient tool for determination of Co(II) and Fe(III). In addition, two other analytical methods have been studied for detection of Co(II) and Fe(III) at low concentration. The first is UV-vis spectrometry which has a LOD as low as 0.14 mg L−1 for Co(II) (at 412 nm) and 0.12 mg L−1 for Fe(III) (at 400 nm). The second is dynamic light scattering (DLS) with a LOD of 3.0 μg L−1 for Co(II) and 2.5 μg L−1 for Fe(III).

Thioglycolic acid-functionalized ZnSe quantum dots (TGA-ZnSe QDs) show high sensitivity and low detection limits for Co2+ and Fe3+.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Yunnan University’s Research Innovation Fund for Graduate Students (YDY17106) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.61761047 and No. 41876055).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, 650091, Kunming, People’s Republic of China

    Xinxin Xing, Tong Zou, Zidong Wang, Rongjun Zhao, Xu Zhang & Yude Wang

  2. Department of Physics, Yunnan University, 650091, Kunming, People’s Republic of China

    Yue Yang & Zhezhe Wang

  3. Key Lab of Quantum Information of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, 650091, Kunming, People’s Republic of China

    Yude Wang

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  1. Xinxin Xing
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Xing, X., Yang, Y., Zou, T. et al. Thioglycolic acid-capped ZnSe quantum dots as nanoprobe for cobalt(II) and iron(III) via measurement of grey level, UV-vis spectra and dynamic light scattering. Microchim Acta 186, 444 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-019-3561-z

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