Detection of ascorbic acid and folic acid based on water-soluble CuInS2 quantum dots

Abstract

In this paper, water-soluble CuInS₂ ternary quantum dots (QDs) modified by mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) were directly synthesized by hydrothermal method. Ascorbic acid (AA) can induce the fluorescence enhancement of MPA-capped CuInS₂ QDs and can be used for the detection of AA. Under the optimized conditions, the relationship between the fluorescence intensity of the CuInS₂ QDs and AA concentration was linear in the range of 0.25–200 μmol L⁻¹. Most relevant molecules and physiological ions had no effect on the detection of AA. The fluorescence intensity of CuInS₂ QDs enhanced by a certain amount of AA could be reduced in the presence of folic acid (FA) and thus can be used for the detection of FA with the linear range of 0.2–100 μmol L⁻¹. Compared with previous reports, the established approach utilized a simple, sensitive, and selective strategy to develop the QDs probe based on fluorescence enhancing and quenching phenomena without complicated immobilization.