One-pot hydrothermal preparation of wurtzite CuGaS2 and its application as a photoluminescent probe for trace detection of l-noradrenaline

•Wurtzite CuGaS2 was prepared in a simple hydrothermal process.•CuGaS2 exhibit a narrow emission.•High sensitivity to LNE in water with a detection limit of 5 × 10−7 mol L−1.

Wurtzite CuGaS2 was successfully synthesized in a facile one-pot hydrothermal process using CuCl, Ga(NO3)3 and thioacetamide as reagents. The as-prepared product was characterized with X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, the application of CuGaS2 obtained in the trace detection of l-noradrenaline was explored as a photoluminescent probe. The results indicate that the as-prepared sample is an aggregation of wurtzite CuGaS2 nanosheets and nanorods, and possess high crystallinity. This CuGaS2 hierarchical nanostructure can exhibit a strong emission at 832 nm with full width at half maximum of approximate 20 nm. In addition, the as-prepared CuGaS2 possess high sensitivity to l-noradrenaline in water with a detectable concentration of 5.0 × 10−7 mol L−1 when it used as a photoluminescent probe, implying that it is a promising candidate in the field of biological and chemical sensing in future.

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