Rapid detection of acrylamide in food using a fluorescent sensing method based on functional CdSe/ZnS quantum dots

A fluorescent sensing method based on functional CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) was investigated for rapid detection of acrylamide. The functional QDs were prepared by binding them with N-acryloxysuccinimide (NAS). Then NAS-QDs complexes were mixed with acrylamide solutions, and polymerization occurred in the presence of photo-initiator under UV irradiation. The reaction increased the distance between QDs, leading to the increase of fluorescence intensity compared with that no acrylamide existed. The detection limit and linear range using this method were 5 × 10^-7 mol L^-1 and 5 × 10^-7 to 1 × 10^-2 mol L^-1, respectively. Compared with LC-MS/MS method, this method could be applied to food detection with similar sensitivity and selectivity but less time and cost.