Sulfur doped molybdenum oxide quantum dots as efficient fluorescent labels and bacteriostatic

Recently, fluorescent quantum dots (QDs) derived from the molybdenum oxide (MoOx) have been garnering enduring interest in diverse applications, but was still in need to develop simple and effective synthesis strategy. Therein, doping strategy should be the most adopted strategies to improve and discover the properties of the QDs, but was rarely reported for the MoOx one. Herein, a facile bottom-up hydrothermal method was proposed to synthesize the sulfur doped MoOx QDs (S-MoOx QDs), which were highly photo-stable, low-cytotoxicity and uniform in size distribution and bright UV-irradiated blue emission. Therefore, it can be used as a fluorescent dye for fibers and cells, and can specifically detect Fe3+ ions by fluorescence quenching. More importantly, the antibacterial features of S-MoOx were discovered.