A highly fluorescent perovskite-based nanomaterial for bilirubin detection

What is it about?

Luminescent organic–inorganic metal halide hybrid perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) as a new class of fluorophores are finding increasing attention towards chemical and biological sensing due to their exceptional photophysical properties. Herein, we synthesized highly fluorescent perovskite quantum dots (B-PQDs) through the ligand assisted reprecipitation method (LARP), using benzylamine as the surface capping ligand. Morphological and opto-structural properties of the as-synthesized B-PQDs were thoroughly investigated using high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–Vis absorption, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The as-synthesized electron-rich amine-capped B-PQDs were employed to study their sensing response towards bilirubin (BL). The aromatic amine capped B-PQDs enhance the sensory response towards BL due to the π-π interaction with BL’s conjugated system. The B-PQDs were found to be highly sensitive towards BL with good sensitivity. Our results demonstrated the potential for utilizing organic–inorganic halide perovskite quantum dots for sensing applications, through surface ligand modification tailored for detecting specific analytes.

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Why is it important?

This work highlights the potential of perovskite quantum dots for sensing biomolecules too. They have high quantum yield, along with narrow emission profiles which can be heavily utilized for sensing. This work can be a turning point to develop more perovskite-based fluorescence sensors.

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