A novel fluorescence probing strategy for the determination of parathion-methyl.

A sensitive fluorescence probing strategy for parathion-methyl (PM) detection was developed based on electron transfer (ET) between p-nitrophenol (the hydrolysate of PM) and CdTe quantum dots (QDs) in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). PM was hydrolyzed by organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) to form p-nitrophenol. P-nitrophenol is a typically electron-deficient compound due to the strong electron-withdrawing effect of the nitro groups. The positive charge of CTAB which make it assemble with electronegative mercaptopropionic acid-capped QDs, could be used as an absorbent for p-nitrophenol due to the strong hydrophobic interaction between the long alkyl chain of CTAB and aromatic ring of p-nitrophenol. Thus, the fluorescence intensity of CdTe QDs/CTAB probe could be quenched by p-nitrophenol due to the ET mechanism. The fluorescence intensity of the QD/CTAB system was proportional to PM concentration in the range of 25-3000 ng mL(-1), with a detection limit of 18 ng mL(-1). Furthermore, the proposed method was simple in design and fast in operation, and has been successfully used for PM detection in environmental and agricultural samples with satisfactory recovery.