Nitrogen-doped MoS2 quantum dots: Facile synthesis and application for the assay of hematin in human blood

Abstract Nitrogen-doped MoS2 quantum dots (N-MoS2 QDs) were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal approach, and exhibited high fluorescence quantum yield (QY, 14.9%), excellent photostability, biocompatibility and water solubility. A novel method with good selectivity and sensitivity was established to assay hematin using N-MoS2 QDs as a fluorescent probe based on inner filter effect (IFE). Fluorescent quenching of N-MoS2 QDs has a fine linear dependence with the concentration of hematin in the range of 0.5–15 μmol/L and a limit of detection of 0.32 μmol/L (S/N = 3). By the detection method, average concentration of hematin in real health human erythrocytes was measured as 22.5 ± 3.9 μmol/L. And, recoveries range varied from 94 to 108% through standard recovery experiment. The N-MoS2 QDs probe shows excellent photostability, low cytotoxicity and anti-interference ability for hematin assay, which may become a promising method for the test of hematin in human blood.