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Methyl viologen induced fluorescence quenching of CdTe quantum dots for highly sensitive and selective “off-on” sensing of ascorbic acid through redox reaction

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Abstract

A turn-on fluorescent sensor based on CdTe quantum dots (QDs) is designed for highly sensitive and selective ascorbic acid (AA) detection. CdTe shows a strong emission centered at 578 nm. When assembled with poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and methyl viologen (Mv2+) through electrostatic interaction, the emission is found to be effectively quenched. In the presence of AA, Mv2+ is reduced to Mv+, making the fluorescence of CdTe QDs restored. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed AA sensing method shows a linear proportional response from 0.8 µM to 20 µM, with the detecting limit as low as 50 nM. The developed method was successfully applied in the analysis of AA in human serum samples and cell lysates with satisfactory results.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this submitted article and its supplementary information file.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1804136) and Zhongyuan thousand talents plan in 2019 (202101510005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Green catalysis center, Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Green Construction of Functional Molecules and Their Bioanalytical Applications, Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterial and Medical Theranostic, Zhengzhou University, 450001, Zhengzhou, China

    Qianqian Zhu, Jingjing Du, Jianjun Li, Ran Yang, Zhaohui Li & Lingbo Qu

  2. Co-construction Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Medicine and Respiratory Diseases by Henan, Education Ministry of P.R. China, Henan, China

    Lingbo Qu

  3. Key Laboratory of Southern Farmland Pollution Prevention and Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Hunan division of GRG Metrology and Test, 410000, Changsha, China

    Jizhong Wang

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  1. Qianqian Zhu
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Contributions

Qianqian Zhu: Investigation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Jingjing Du: Investigation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft. Jianjun Li: Data curation. Jizhong Wang: Formal analysis. Ran Yang: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Zhaohui Li: Conceptualization, Data curation, Supervision. Lingbo Qu: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Data curation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ran Yang.

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Zhu, Q., Du, J., Li, J. et al. Methyl viologen induced fluorescence quenching of CdTe quantum dots for highly sensitive and selective “off-on” sensing of ascorbic acid through redox reaction. J Fluoresc 32, 1405–1412 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-022-02925-2

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