%0 Journal Article
%A Alayeto, Iodia
%A Gutiérrez González, Paula
%A Dongmei, Qiu
%A Pallarés Vilar, Ana
%A Hamraoui, Khouloud
%A Civera Tejuca, María Concepción
%A Cascales Sandoval, Juan Pedro
%A Melle Hernández, Sonia
%A Gómez Calderón, Óscar
%A Rubio Retama, Benito Jorge
%A Gonzalo Villaverde
%A Villaverde Cantizano, Gonzalo
%T Ion-Mediated Photoluminescence Enhancement in CuInS2 Quantum Dots and Its Use as Heavy Metal Ion Sensor
%D 2025
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/122787
%X The absence of heavy metal ions and excellent photoluminescent (PL) properties make CuInS2 quantum dots (QDs) ideal candidates for a wide range of PL applications. One of these applications stems from their inherent capacity to  respond to the presence of Cd2+ ions, which significantly enhances their photoluminescence emission. This property enables the creation of Cd2+ sensors based on the detection of variations in the PL emission or PL lifetime. Aiming to understand the enhancement effect that the presence of Cd2+ exerts on these CuInS2 QDs, we synthesized and characterized a set of CuInS2 QDs covered with varying ZnS shell thicknesses, which were used as Cd2+ probes. The analysis of PL features demonstrated that the presence of Cd2+ ions blocks surface traps on the CuInS2 QDs, minimizing nonradiative decay pathways and therefore increasing both the PL lifetimesand the PL emission of the QDs. In contrast, the incorporation of a ZnS shell passivates the surface of the QDs, reduces the number of accessible surface traps, and diminishes the sensitivity toward the Cd2+ ions. This knowledge has been used to create a sensor that can be used to selectively detect the presence of Cd2+ in the micromolar range, which can even be seen with the naked eye, and exhibits a linear range from 0.05 to 10 μM
%~