Selective recognition of dysprosium(III) ions by enhanced chemiluminescence CdSe quantum dots Morteza Hosseini a,⇑ , Mohammad R. Ganjali b,c , Zahra Vaezi d , Farnoush Faridbod b,c , Batool Arabsorkhi b , Mohammad H. Sheikhha e a Department of Life Science Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran b Center of Excellence in Electrochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran c Biosensor Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran d Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche, Universita‘ di Roma Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy e International Campus, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Science, Yazd, Iran highlights  The intensity of the chemiluminescence reaction of CdSe quantum dots enhances with addition Dy 3+ ion.  The chemiluminescence reaction of CdSe quantum dots shows high selectivity and sensitivity to Dy 3+ ion.  The sensor has detection limit of 6.0  10 8 M for Dy 3+ ions with linear range 8.3  10 7 M–5.0  10 6 M. graphical abstract The intensity of emitted light from CdSe quantum dots–H 2 O 2 is described as a novel chemiluminescence (CL) reaction for determination of dysprosium. This reaction is based on the catalytic effect of Dy 3+ ions, causing a significant increase in the light emission, as a result of the reaction of quantum dots (QDs) with hydrogen peroxide. article info Article history: Received 1 September 2013 Received in revised form 9 October 2013 Accepted 17 October 2013 Available online 26 October 2013 Keywords: Quantum dots Dysprosium Chemiluminescence Enhancement Cadmium selenide abstract The intensity of emitted light from CdSe quantum dots (QDs)–H 2 O 2 is described as a novel chemilumines- cence (CL) reaction for determination of dysprosium. This reaction is based on the catalytic effect of Dy 3+ ions, causing a significant increase in the light emission, as a result of the reaction of quantum dots (QDs) with hydrogen peroxide. In the optimum conditions, this method was satisfactorily described by linear calibration curve in the range of 8.3  10 7 –5.0  10 6 M, the detection limit of 6.0  10 8 M, and the rel- ative standard deviation for five determinations of 2.5  10 6 M Dy 3+ 3.2%. The main experimental advantage of the proposed method is its selective to Dy 3+ ions compared with common coexisting cat- ions, therefore, it was successfully applied for the determination of dysprosium ions in water samples. Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1386-1425/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2013.10.074 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +98 21 61112788. E-mail address: smhosseini@khayam.ut.ac.ir (M. Hosseini). Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 121 (2014) 116–120 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/saa