The interaction between water-soluble zinc sulfide quantum dots (ZnS QDs) and selenite ion was investigated by photoluminescence method. The water-soluble ZnS QDs were synthesized using a simple and fast procedure based on the co-precipitation of nanoparticles in an aqueous solution in the presence of 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), as the capping agent. Fluorescence intensity for MPA–ZnS QDs, with a strong fluorescent emission at about 430 nm, decreased in the presence of selenite. The influence of the effective parameters including pH and temperature was investigated. The results showed that under the optimum conditions, the fluorescence intensity change of QDs was linearly proportional to the selenite concentration in the range 4.0 × 10−5–7.2 × 10−4 mol L−1. Moreover, the quenching mechanism was discussed to be a static quenching procedure.
