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Effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the electrogenerated chemiluminescence and fluorescence of CdTe quantum dots

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Abstract

Effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that were immobilized on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) on the electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) using tri-n-propylamine (TPrA) and 2-(dibutylamino)ethanol (DBAE) as the anodic coreactant are reported. Depending on the solution concentration of coreactant and QDs, the surface-confined CNTs could either quench or enhance the ECL intensity. Lowering the solution concentration of QDs was found to be beneficial for enhancing ECL. A V-shaped profile of ECL intensity ratio (at CNTs over bare GCE) versus coreactant concentration suggested that either low or high concentrations of coreactant were needed for effective ECL generation. The ECL quenching by CNTs was believed to follow the typical dynamic quenching mechanism, which was confirmed by fluorescent data that provided a Stern-Volmer and an estimated quenching constant of 11.7 g/L and 1.2 × 109 L/g•s, respectively, for the excited state CdTe* quenching by CNTs in solution. Furthermore, the ECL performance at CNTs was also affected by the type of the coreactant used, where up to 30 times enhancement in ECL was observed from the CdTe/DBAE system under the given experimental conditions.

Illustration of anodic quantum dots ECL enhancement and quenching by multi-walled carbon nanotubes

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from the National Science Foundation via an NSF CAREER award (CHE 0955878) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 21475006, LPL) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA

    Yiliyasi Wusimanjiang, Alexander Meyer & Wujian Miao

  2. Key Laboratory of Beijing on Regional Air Pollution Control, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China

    Liping Lu

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  1. Yiliyasi Wusimanjiang
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Correspondence to Wujian Miao.

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Published in the topical collection Analytical Electrochemiluminescence with guest editors Hua Cui, Francesco Paolucci, Neso Sojic, and Guobao Xu.

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Wusimanjiang, Y., Meyer, A., Lu, L. et al. Effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the electrogenerated chemiluminescence and fluorescence of CdTe quantum dots. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 7049–7057 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-016-9573-1

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