Spectroscopically characterized cadmium sulfide quantum dots lengthening the lag phase of Escherichia coli growth.

The present study reports the effect of cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots on the life cycle of Escherichia coli. CdS quantum dots were synthesized by pH sensitive organochemical route using cadmium chloride and sodium sulfide as precursors and mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as capping agent. It is observed that varying concentration of MPA leads to the production of different sized quantum dots with inverse proportionality and increment in the fluorescence quantum yield. The investigation also shows that CdS quantum dots have no antibacterial activity except it delays the log phase growth of bacteria in terms of size of the particles. The largest synthesized particles significantly elongate the lag phase growth.