Facile Bottom-up Preparation of WS(2)-Based Water-Soluble Quantum Dots as Luminescent Probes for Hydrogen Peroxide and Glucose

Photoluminescent zero-dimensional (0D) quantum dots (QDs) derived from transition metal dichalcogenides, particularly molybdenum disulfide, are presently in the spotlight for their advantageous characteristics for optoelectronics, imaging, and sensors. Nevertheless, up to now, little work has been done to synthesize and explore photoluminescent 0D WS(2) QDs, especially by a bottom-up strategy without using usual toxic organic solvents. In this work, we report a facile bottom-up strategy to synthesize high-quality water-soluble tungsten disulfide (WS(2)) QDs through hydrothermal reaction by using sodium tungstate dihydrate and l-cysteine as W and S sources. Besides, hybrid carbon quantum dots/WS(2) QDs were further prepared based on this method. Physicochemical and structural analysis of QD hybrid indicated that the graphitic carbon quantum dots with diameters about 5 nm were held onto WS(2) QDs via electrostatic attraction forces. The resultant QDs show good water solubility and stable photoluminescence (PL). The excitation-dependent PL can be attributed to the polydispersity of the synthesized QDs. We found that the PL was stable under continuous irradiation of UV light but can be quenched in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)). The obtained WS(2)-based QDs were thus adopted as an electrodeless luminescent probe for H(2)O(2) and for enzymatic sensing of glucose. The hybrid QDs were shown to have a more sensitive LOD in the case of glucose sensing. The Raman study implied that H(2)O(2) causes the partial oxidation of QDs, which may lead to oxidation-induced quenching. Overall, the presented strategy provides a general guideline for facile and low-cost synthesis of other water-soluble layered material QDs and relevant hybrids in large quantity. These WS(2)-based high-quality water-soluble QDs should be promising for a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, environmental monitoring, medical imaging, and photocatalysis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s11671-019-3109-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.