One-step synthesis of water stable MAPbBr3 quantum dots for the fluorescence detection of methyl nicotinate as a tuberculosis biomarker

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide suffer from tuberculosis (TB), which is due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Methyl nicotinate is recognized as one of the significant TB biomarkers. In this work, a simple one-step procedure was developed for the preparation of fluorescent MAPbBr₃ quantum dots (QDs) using lead bromide, methylammonium bromide, and pyrrole as precursors. The MAPbBr₃ QDs exhibited impressive stability in aqueous medium and acted as a selective fluorescent probe to detect methyl nicotinate via a fluorescence turn-off mechanism. The as-prepared MAPbBr₃ QD-based fluorescent probe has high ability to detect methyl nicotinate, with the detection limit of 71.13 nM. Importantly, the analytical performance of the developed fluorescent probe was validated by assaying methyl nicotinate in spiked biological samples, showing good recoveries in the range of 97.20 to 99.64%, which signifies that MAPbBr₃ QDs could be used as a facile portable probe for methyl nicotinate assays in biofluids.