Selective turn-on fluorescence sensor for Ag+ using cysteamine capped CdS quantum dots: determination of free Ag+ in silver nanoparticles solution.

Cadmium sulfide quantum dots capped with cysteamine (Cys-CdS QDs) were demonstrated as a selective fluorescence probe for sensing of free trace silver ions. The fluorescence intensity of the Cys-CdS QDs can be enhanced only in the presence of free Ag(+) and the fluorescence spectrum was slightly red shift from the original spectra. In addition, the fluorescence intensities were linearly increased upon increasing Ag(+) concentration. At the optimized condition for Ag(+) detection, when adding other metal ions to the Cys-CdS QDs solution, fluorescence spectra of Cys-CdS QDs did not change significantly revealing good selectivity of the sensors towards Ag(+). The working linear concentration range was found to be 0.1-1.5 µM with LOD of 68 nM. The proposed sensor was then applied to detect free Ag(+) in the silver nanoparticles solution. The results showed that the proposed sensor can be efficiently used with good accuracy and precision providing the simple method for detection of free Ag(+) in silver nanoparticles of quality control products.