A novel
fluorescent probe based on a nitrogen-doped carbon dot
(N-CD) and CdTe quantum dot (CdTe QD) platform has been constructed
for H2O2/glucose detection and pH sensing. In
this work, H2O2-tolerant blue fluorescence N-CDs
were added to the H2O2-mediated yellow fluorescence
quenching of CdTe QDs to construct a dual-color ratiometric fluorescent
H2O2 probe. H2O2-induced
passivated group detachment and action on deep nanocrystals promoted
CdTe QD fluorescence quenching. Meanwhile, the addition of the blue
fluorescent background of N-CDs sharply reflected the color change
in CdTe QDs. Under the optimized experimental conditions, the platform
was effectively applied to the detection of H2O2 produced by the enzymatic reaction of glucose, showing high sensitivity
(limit of detection 7.86 μM) and wide linear range (26–900
μM) for glucose detection. The pH-sensing behavior of CdTe QDs
and N-CDs was attributed to the displacement of a weak acid (3-mercaptopropionic
acid) by a strong acid (HCl) and the acid titration process of two
coexisting bases (N-CDs and NH3·H2O), respectively.
The loss of passivation and doping effects led to a decrease in the
fluorescence intensity of CdTe QDs and N-CDs. Moreover, utilizing
the ability of bimaterial system fluorescence to pH sensing, a semiquantitative
pH detection based on the linear response was developed. The pH range
was analyzed by three kinds of N-CD (F
ex = 440 nm) and CdTe QD (F
ex = 548 nm)
typical emission spectral shapes. In addition, the recovery results
showed that the bimaterial system was proved to be appropriate for
the assay of glucose in spiked serum samples.
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