Optical and photocatalytic properties of sulfide semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) synthesized by silk fibroin template

Bio-template method is a simple, controllable and environmental friendly strategy to synthesize nanomaterials. It also avails the formation of bioactive and biocompatible nanoparticle–biomolecule hybrid for biotechnical applications. In this paper, silk fibroin was first successfully used as biomolecule template for the biomimic synthesis of CdS and ZnS quantum dots (QDs). The QDs showed promising applications as fluorescence probes and nanocatalysts. The effect of preparation situation to their optical and photocatalytic properties was well researched and CdS QDs with satisfying catalytic activities could be achieved by adjusting the protein matrix. It offers us a low-cost and effective way to synthesize series of sulfide semiconductor nanomaterials using silk fibroin.