Fluorescent methylammonium lead halide perovskite quantum dots as a sensing material for the detection of polar organochlorine pesticide residues

Abstract

Methylammonium lead halide perovskite quantum dots (MAPB-QDs) have been widely used for photovoltaic devices due to their special electronic structures. In this work, MAPB-QDs were used for the first time to detect polar organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) based on the phenomenon that the fluorescence spectra of MAPB-QDs were blue-shifted in the presence of polar OCPs. Furthermore, ¹H NMR, FTIR, XPS and XRD were performed first to illustrate the sensing mechanism. In the presence of polar OCPs, the MAPB-QDs’ capping ligands, oleic acid (OA) and oleylamine (OAm), were replaced with OCPs and then the chlorine element was adequately doped into QDs, resulting in the increase of the MAPB-QDs’ bandgap. As result of the insufficient stability of MAPB-QDs in the presence of moisture, MAPB-QDs were mixed with PDMS and used as the colorimetric cards for fast detection of OCPs in real samples.