A selective determination of copper ions in water samples based on the fluorescence quenching of thiol‐capped CdTe quantum dots

CdTe quantum dots (QDs) capped with different stabilizers, i.e. thioglycolic acid (TGA), 3‐mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and glutathione (GSH) were investigated as fluorescent probes for the determination of Cu 2+ . The stabilizer was shown to play an important role in both the sensitivity and selectivity for the determination of Cu 2+ . TGA‐capped CdTe QDs showed the highest sensitivity, followed by the MPA and GSH‐capped CdTe QDs, respectively. The TGA‐ and MPA‐capped CdTe QDs were not selective for Cu 2+ that was affected by Ag + . The GSH‐capped CdTe QDs were insensitive to Ag + and were used to determine Cu 2+ in water samples. Under optimal conditions, quenching of the fluorescence intensity ( F 0 / F ) increased linearly with the concentration of Cu 2+ over a range of 0.10–4.0 µg/mL and the detection limit was 0.06 µg/mL. The developed method was successfully applied to the determination of Cu 2+ in water samples. Good recoveries of 93–104%, with a relative standard deviation of < 6% demonstrated that the developed simple method was accurate and reliable. The quenching mechanisms were also described. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.