Preparation and purification of l-cysteine capped CdTe quantum dots and its self-recovery of degenerate fluorescence

l-cysteine capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were prepared in aqueous solution by a simple and efficient method, showing many advantages such as short synthesis period, the broaden range of starting pH value and the wide fluorescence emission wavelength range. A novel purification process was designed to remove excess Cd2+ which has potential cytotoxicity for bio-analysis. Three-dimensional fluorescence charts of pre- and post-purification showed that the purified QDs were of better luminescent performance. The prepared QDs were of cubic crystal structure with an average size of 2–6 nm, which were characterized by XRD and HRTEM. It is confirmed by IR spectra that the l-cysteine ligands were conjugated with CdTe cores via covalent bond. The degenerate fluorescence of QDs can be self-recovered in the presence of l-cysteine without other processing steps.