Glutathione modified silicon-doped carbon quantum dots as a sensitive fluorescent probe for ClO - detection

Abstract A selective and agile fluorescence method for hypochlorite (ClO⁻) was designed using glutathione (GSH) modified silicon-doped carbon quantum dots (GSH@Si-CDs). Then a dual emission ratio fluorescence probe (RF-probe) was obtained based on carbodiimide-activated coupling reaction between GSH and Si-CDs. i.e., when the excitation wavelength was kept at 360 nm, the GSH@Si-CDs exhibited strong blue and weak yellow fluorescence at 430 and 580 nm. Meanwhile, the fluorescence of GSH@Si-CDs could be selectively quenched at 430 nm and enhanced at 580 nm in the presence of ClO⁻, and corresponding limit of detection (LOD) and linear range were measured to be 0.35 µM and 1.0-33.3 µM. Moreover, the RF-probe with good accuracy was successfully applied to the assay of ClO⁻ in real samples.