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Fluorescence enhancement of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots induced by mercury ions and its applications to the on-site sensitive detection of mercury ions

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Abstract

The significant fluorescence enhancement of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) induced by Hg2+ was observed for the first time based on a CdSe/ZnS QD-modified fiber nanoprobe. The fluorescence enhancement mechanism contributed to the Zn-to-Hg cation exchange in the ZnS shell, which allowed to form a HgxZn1-xS/CdSe heterojunction and increase the separation of electrons and holes and reduce the recombination rate. High concentrations of Hg2+ accelerated the generation of the fluorescence signal and lead to higher fluorescence intensity. The maximum fluorescence intensity increased more than eight times when Hg2+ concentration was 1 µM. The characteristic time (θc), i.e., the rising time to achieve the maximum fluorescence intensity, was linearly dependent on  initial concentration of Hg2+ solution in accordance with our proposed theory. When the evanescent wave optofluidic fluorescence platform was used, the linear detection range and detection limit of Hg2+ were 5.0–1000 nM and 0.80 nM, respectively. The fiber nanoprobe can be applied to the rapid, sensitive, and accurate on-site detection of Hg2+ in real water samples without significant matrix effect. Our work paves a novel way to develop a simple and reliable nanoprobe for mercuric pollution control, and achieve the high quantum efficiency of QDs by limiting the diffusion of Hg2+ in the ZnS shell.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21675171), and the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Projects of China (2012YQ3011105).

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Author notes

  1. Hongliang Wang, Dan Song and Yue Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Hongliang Wang, Dan Song, Jiayuan Liu & Feng Long

  2. State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian, Beijing, 102205, China

    Yue Zhou & Anna Zhu

  3. Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Feng Long

Authors
  1. Hongliang Wang
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  2. Dan Song
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  3. Yue Zhou
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  4. Jiayuan Liu
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  5. Anna Zhu
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  6. Feng Long
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Correspondence to Feng Long.

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Wang, H., Song, D., Zhou, Y. et al. Fluorescence enhancement of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots induced by mercury ions and its applications to the on-site sensitive detection of mercury ions. Microchim Acta 188, 215 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04871-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04871-5

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