Chlorine-doped MoS quantum dots embedded in a molecularly imprinted polymer for highly selective and sensitive optosensing of quercetin.

Chlorine-doped MoS quantum dots (Cl-MoS QDs) embedded in a SiO molecularly imprinted polymer (Cl-MoS QDs@SiO@MIP) have been successfully synthesized and can be used for highly selective and sensitive optosensing of quercetin. The novel environmentally friendly sensor integrated the advantages of the Cl-MoS QDs and MIP, high sensitivity and specific recognition for quercetin. The as-fabricated sensor is used to detect trace amounts of quercetin, and its fluorescence intensity showed a good linear decline with the increasing concentration of quercetin from 2 ng mL to 200 ng mL with a detection limit of 1.2 ng mL (S/N = 3). The Cl-MoS QDs@SiO@MIP probe was employed to assay the content of quercetin of real onion extract with good performance, which is in fine agreement with the result obtained by high performance liquid chromatography. The developed Cl-MoS QDs@SiO@MIP sensor exhibits promising potential in the detection of quercetin.