被撤回的出版物: Multifunctional fluorescent chalcogenide hybrid nanodots (MoSe2:CdS and WSe2:CdS) as electro catalyst (for oxygen reduction/oxygen evolution reactions) and sensing probe for lead (Retracted article. See vol. 6, pg. 24988, 2018)

Manufacturing, designing and developing economic but highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for water splitting technology have become necessary for the large-scale commercialization of regenerative fuel cells. In this work, for the first time, uniformly sized molybdenum/tungsten diselenide and cadmium disulfide nanohybrid quantum dots (MoSe2:CdS and WSe2:CdS NHDs) have been synthesized by a simple hydrothermal technique. The highly exfoliated and defect-abundant nanostructure possess abundant active sites and therefore shows bifunctional behavior with high catalytic activity towards the oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER). The WSe2:CdS NHDs exhibit a small onset potential of + 1.1 V vs. RHE and -0.26 V with a small Tafel slope of 49 mV dec(-1) and 27 mV dec(-1) for OER and ORR, respectively. Moreover, having a quantum sized structure along with CdS also made the NHDs a promising and biocompatible fluorescent probe for metal ion (Pb2+) analysis. The PL emission from NHDs is of high energy and is more intense than the bare NDs, with a very good quantum yield of 87%. The prepared NHDs show a highly stable fluorescence and NHDs coated paper strips were successfully implemented for trace level (20.0 mu g L-1) analysis of Pb2+ in real samples (human blood, urine, and polluted water). However, the NHDs were also employed for ultra-trace level (500.0 ng L-1) detection of Pb2+, which confirm the highly selective, sensitive and multi-functional behavior of the prepared NHDs. Therefore, it is envisaged that this work may provide a simple route to synthesize multi-talented 2D layered nanodots suitabile for imaging, sensing, and other energy-related technologies.