A highly sensitive and selective chemosensor for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol based on L-cysteine-coated cadmium sulfide quantum dots.

2,4,6-Trinitrophenol (TNP) is a common explosive and widely used in military, pharmaceutical, pesticide, printing and dyeing industries. TNP in the wastewater and waste residues will enter into the environment by various ways and lead to serious threat on the environment. It is urgent to develop simple and robust analytical methods for highly sensitive and selective determination of TNP. L-cysteine-coated cadmium sulfide quantum dots (L-Cy-CdS QDs) with strong fluorescence were synthesized at room temperature and characterized by ultraviolet visible absorption spectra, transmission electron microscopy and fourier transform infrared spectrometer. TNP could quench the fluorescence of quantum dots based on the favorable electronic energy transfer, fluorescence resonance energy transfer, and electrostatic interactions. The effects of pH, reaction time and L-Cy-CdS QDs concentration on the fluorescence response were optimized. It was found that the fluorescence quenching of the quantum dots was linear with the concentration of TNP in the range of 0.05-5 μg mL, and the limit of detection was as low as 39 ng mL. The method can be applied to the quantitative detection of TNP in environmental water samples.