Interaction of CdTe nanocrystals with thiol-containing amino acids at different pH: a fluorimetric study

3-Mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-capped CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized in aqueous medium, and their interaction with cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy) was studied by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectra at different pH. At 6.4 < pH < 8.0, the fluorescence of CdTe NCs can be effectively enhanced by Cys and Hcy. While pH > 9.6, only Cys quenches the fluorescence of the CdTe NCs, no fluorescence changes are observed for Hcy. Mechanism study shows that these pH manipulating fluorescence responses can be attributed to the following two reasons: first, both the thiol–thiolate equilibrium of Cys (Hcy) and the number of undercoordinated NCs surface sites capped with dual coordinated ligands are strong pH-dependent; second, different thiol-containing amino acids, with different redox energy level, can lead to distinguishable fluorescence responses of NCs. Based on these unique fluorescence responses, the possibilities of developing a sensitive detecting technique for Cys/Hcy and Cys through pH modulation can be explored.