Preparation of “Ion-Imprinting” Difunctional Magnetic Fluorescent Nanohybrid and Its Application to Detect Cadmium Ions

In this work, we have fabricated a novel difunctional magnetic fluorescent nanohybrid (DMFN) for the determination of cadmium ions (Cd(2+)) in water samples, where the “off-on” model and “ion-imprinting” technique were incorporated simultaneously. The DMFN were composed of CdTe/CdS core-shell quantum dots (QD) covalently linked onto the surface of polystyrene magnetic microspheres (PMM) and characterized using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), fluorescence spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Based on the favorable magnetic and fluorescent properties of the DMFN, the chemical etching of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) at the surface produced specific Cd(2+) recognition sites and quenched the red fluorescence of outer CdTe/CdS QD. Under optimal determination conditions, such as EDTA concentration, pH, and interfering ions, the working curve of determining Cd(2+) was obtained; the equation was obtained Y = 34,759X + 254,894 (R = 0.9863) with a line range 0.05–8 μM, and the detection limit was 0.01 μM. Results showed that synthesized magnetic fluorescent microspheres had high sensitivity, selectivity, and reusability in detection. Moreover, they have significant potential value in fields such as biomedicine, analytical chemistry, ion detection, and fluorescence labeling.