Biomimetic synthesis of RPL14B-based CdSe quantum dots for the detection of heavy metal copper ions

Abstract

In the present study, an Escherichia coli-expressed yeast ribosomal protein was used as a template for synthesizing RPL14B-based CdSe quantum dots in vitro via the quasi-biosynthesis strategy at low temperature. The synthetic bionic RPL14B-based CdSe quantum dots were characterized using TEM, HRTEM, and EDX spectra, and the results showed that the synthesized quantum dots were CdSe quantum dots with a crystal face spacing of 0.21 and 0.18 nm. The biomimetic method-synthesized quantum dots exhibited the characteristics of a uniform particle size, good dispersion, and strong photobleaching resistance. Moreover, the fluorescence of the RPL14b-based CdSe quantum dots could be specifically quenched using Cu²⁺ in a linear range of 0.2–10 μM. Finally, these RPL14b-based CdSe quantum dots can be used for the specific detection of heavy metal copper ions in addition to other applications in biological analyses.