Sensitive and selective determination of tetracycline in milk based on sulfur quantum dot probes

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 11; no. 37; pp. 2296 - 22968
• Main Authors: Lu, Haixin, Zhang, Hanqiang, Li, Yufei, Gan, Feng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 29.06.2021; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Chemistry; detection limit; fluorescence; fluorescent dyes; Fluorescent indicators; Hydrogen peroxide; milk; Quantum dots; rapid methods; Selectivity; Signal to noise ratio; standard deviation; Sulfur; Synthesis; tetracycline; water solubility
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ra03745e

A novel fluorescent probe based on sulfur quantum dots (SQDs) was fabricated for sensitive and selective detection of tetracycline (TC) in milk samples. The blue emitting SQDs were synthesized via a top-down method with assistance of H 2 O 2 . The synthesized SQDs showed excellent monodispersity, water solubility and fluorescence stability, with a quantum yield (QY) of 6.30%. Furthermore, the blue fluorescence of the obtained SQDs could be effectively quenched in the presence of TC through the static quenching effect (SQE) and inner filter effect (IFE) between TC and SQDs. Under the optimum conditions, a rapid detection of TC could be accomplished within 1 min and a wide linear range could be obtained from 0.1 to 50.0 μM with a limit of detection (LOD) of 28.0 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Finally, the SQD-based fluorescent probe was successfully applied for TC determination in milk samples with satisfactory recovery and good relative standard deviation (RSD). These results indicate that the SQD-based fluorescent probe shows great potential in practical analysis of TC in real samples with high rapidity, selectivity, and sensitivity. A SQD-based fluorescent probe was applied to detect TC based on the inner filter effect (IFE) and static quenching effect (SQE) without any extra surface modification for the first time.