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Roles of glutathione and L-cysteine in the biomimetic green synthesis of CdSe quantum dots

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Abstract

Biological synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) as an environmental-friendly and facile preparation method has attracted increasing interests. However, it is difficult to distinguish the roles of bio-thiols in QDs synthesis process because of the complex nature in organisms. In this work, the CdSe QDs synthesis conditions in organisms were reconstructed by using a simplified in vitro approach to uncover the roles of two small bio-thiols in the QDs formation. CdSe QDs were synthesized with glutathione (GSH) and L-cysteine (Cys) respectively. Compared with Cys at the same molar concentration, the CdSe QDs synthesized by GSH had a larger and broader particle size distribution with improved optical properties and crystal structure. Furthermore, quantum chemical calculations indicate that the stronger Cd2+ binding capacity of GSH contributed a lot to the CdSe QDs formation despite of the greater capability Cys for selenite reduction. This work clearly demonstrates the different roles of small thiols in the Cd2+ stabilization in the environment and biomimetic QDs synthesis process.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21590812), and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Chemistry, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Ling-Li Li, Yin-Hua Cui, Jie-Jie Chen & Han-Qing Yu

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  1. Ling-Li Li
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  2. Yin-Hua Cui
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Correspondence to Han-Qing Yu.

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Li, LL., Cui, YH., Chen, JJ. et al. Roles of glutathione and L-cysteine in the biomimetic green synthesis of CdSe quantum dots. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 11, 7 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0948-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0948-0

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