A fluorescent probe of CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 perovskite quantum dots on polystyrene nanofibres for the detection of copper ions

AbstractRecently, metal halide perovskite quantum dots (MHPQDs) have attracted considerable interest in sensing activities due to their excellent optoelectronic properties and high surface activity. Here, aiming for heavy metal detection, we proposed an ultrasensitive turn-off fluorescent probe based on MAPbBr3 MHPQDs for the measurement of copper ions in an organic solvent. A low limit of detection (LOD) of 5.6nM was achieved and the test range was recorded from 0nM to 100nM. In order to achieve this high sensitivity, a thin film layer of electrospun polystyrene(PS) nanofibre was introduced for the structural support of MHPQDs, by which the sensitivity increased two orders of magnitude. The quenching mechanism is also discussed in the paper. We believe the electron transfer effect between Cu2+ and perovskite QDs made the main contribution for turn off sensing in our prototype device.KEYWORDS: MHPQDsPSElectrospunCu2+JEL CODE KEYWORDS: 71.35.-y71.35.Lk71.36.+c AcknowledgementsSizhong Yi: methodology, formal analysis, writing, original draft. Xin Zhang: writing draft, idea, review & editing, funding acquisition. Yuanhao Huang: data collection, material preparation. Jie Zou: testing system optimizing, funding acquisition. Yuheng Wang: review & editing, data analysis. Jiawen Jian: review & editing, funding acquisition. Qinghui Jin: experiment advice. Xiaowei Zhang: review & editing, funding acquisition.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant numbers 61971251, 61974078, and 61871243).