| Abstract: | Abstract Water-soluble cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QD) capped by mercaptoacetic acid were synthesized by aqueous-phase arrested precipitation and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, a spectrofluorometer, and an ultraviolet visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer. Based on the fluorescence quenching of CdS QD by selenite in the presence of glutathione (GSH), a simple, rapid, sensitive, and selective detection method for selenite was proposed. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graph was linear in the range of 0.05 µmol L?1 to 11.2 µmol L?1. The limit of detection is 0.03 µmol L?1. The usefulness of the proposed method was evaluated for the determination of selenite in sodium selenite tablet and sodium selenite and vitamin E injection, and the results agreed with the labeled values. In addition, the effect of foreign ions (common anions and biologically relevant cations) on the fluorescence of the CdS QD was examined to evaluate the selectivity. The quenching mechanism is also described. |
